


Hindsight

by fizzfooz



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Big Brother Gladiolus Amicitia, Child Ignis Scientia, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, Magical Accidents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2020-02-21 17:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18706873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fizzfooz/pseuds/fizzfooz
Summary: Ignis gets de-aged. The others have to pretend to be responsible adults.





	1. Chapter 1

“Uh... guys.”

The fight had been all-out. Gladio was still leaning on his sword, struggling to regain his breath, and he sure as hell didn't want to know what Prompto was _uh guys_ ing them about after a fucking never-before-seen monster came out of nowhere and nearly killed them all. He made himself lift his head anyway, checking for Noct first. He was fine. Lying flat-out on his back in the softer grass, his chest rising and falling with exertion. He just needed to recover his magic some.

Prompto was too. He was the only one standing. Being a ranged fighter helped but Gladio had long given up on wondering where all the energy in that skinny body came from. Sometimes in the tent he wanted to physically hold him down until he stopped fidgeting and went to sleep.

Wait. Where was Iggy?

Gladio hefted his sword, lumbering forward even though he had nothing left. “Where's Iggy?” Noct lifted his head too. The air filled with the smell of ozone, like maybe they'd get a visit from Ramuh just to round the day off.

“I think... He might be...”

“Spit it out!”

“You know how he got bukkaked with monster juice?”

Urgh. Not how he would have put it but yeah. The weird monster had sprayed something like squid ink (from its mouth) and Ignis had caught it full in the face. By diving in front of Prompto like a reckless asshole. Every worst case scenario flashed through Gladio's mind, he dropped his sword so he could pick up the pace. Noct was scrabbling to his feet too. Prompto was facing away from them. It took him an eternity to turn round.

When he did he was holding a kid. A kid wearing Ignis' too-big glasses. Bundled up in Ignis' now enormous shirt. Ignis' pants and shoes lay pooled on the grass beneath them. His face and glasses were still full of that ink stuff.

“Oh sh-- Oh sugar.”

###

They pulled some energy outta their asses to make it back to the Regalia and then to a haven. The kid was clinging to Prompto like a barnacle. He looked about four? Five? And he looked like the Ignis Gladio remembered growing up with. Small for his age, obviously looking even smaller now. Ignis' growth spurt had caught everyone by surprise, especially Ignis himself, constantly grumbling about having to let down the hems of his trousers. But where ink-spitting unknown monsters were concerned, they couldn't be too careful.

“We sure this is Iggy?”

“It's him.” That was Noct.

“How the he-- heck are you so sure?”

“I can feel him. His connection to the magic. Guess he still has that.”

And Gladio really hoped he didn't know how to use it. Kids and daggers were a bad combination. Ignis peeked out from Prompto's chest and quickly buried his face again when Gladio attempted a smile.

“Think a remedy'll work?” Noct asked.

“Can't hurt to try.”

Noct pulled one out of the armiger. “Hey Iggy. Think you can drink this for me?”

Ignis only burrowed further into Prompto, like he was trying to snuggle right inside his chest cavity. “I think he's scared? Hey, Iggy, bud. It's okay. Noct's a good dude, all right?”

“Thanks, man. I'm touched.”

“Shhhh. He's my friend, all right?”

Ignis peeked up again. Gods, he really was tiny. Gladio had been so used to navigating a world that was just slightly too small for him he'd never thought about it the opposite way around. Ignis had projected confidence even at this age, always seemed way more grown-up than he was, and Gladio would bet his ass that he wasn't scared. He was assessing the situation. Had homed in on Prompto because he was clearly the softest touch out of all of them. Still, Ignis was much smaller than Iris had been at this age. He blinked at Prompto and then looked sceptically at Noct.

“It's, uh, medicine,” Noct said.

“A remedy,” Ignis corrected at once. Weird to hear that so-familiar tone in a prepubescent voice. “For status ailments,” he added, when Noct gaped at him.

Prompto chuckled. “You still can't school Iggy.”

“Yeah, right. Good job. Now drink up.”

“I don't have a status ailment. That's wasteful.”

“Uhhh....”

Gladio plucked the remedy from Noct's hand. “What the brain twins are over here are trying to say is, we need you to take this.” Kids needed some things dumbed-down, yeah, but they hated being patronised and Iggy had been a gifted kid. He hated it more than most. “We're used to an older, bigger version of you. You – that is, the bigger you – got attacked by a monster and it made you this age again. How old?”

“Five and a half.”

“Ours was – is? – I'm kinda lost on the tenses here – twenty-two. Will you take this? See if it works? I think it's a status ailment. If it is this should work.”

Ignis reached out a tiny hand and took the remedy. He broke it over himself. Nothing happened. “Your hypothesis was incorrect.”

Yeah, Gladio remembered that from childhood too. Gladio read a lot and he had a good vocabulary but he also had enough social skills to know not to bust out the polysyllables when a monosyllable would do. It was cute at this age but it'd been embarrassing as hell when he was a year older than Ignis and forced to hang out with him. “We need to clean that gunk of your face.”

“I can do it,” Noct said.

“You can't. Not you either, Prompto. You clumsy asssss-- buttheads will only end up getting yourselves affected.”

Ignis scowled in disapproval of the language, mild as it had been. That was familiar too. The same expression on a much smaller scale. Come to think of it, older Ignis wasn't a big fan of bad language either.

###

Even a weed like Prompto could have carried this Ignis without getting tired. Regular-sized Ignis was six feet of muscle and had a barricade of personal space that he viciously enforced, elbowing Gladio out of the way if he fell against him in the backseat of the Regalia. This one didn't seem to mind being carried. Gladio had him perched on his shoulder like a parrot as he took him down to the lake to wash.

Gladio took a washcloth and a plastic bag from the armiger.

“You're a glaive?” Ignis asked, eyes sharp behind the lopsided glasses.

“I'm Gladiolus Amicitia, shield to the future King Noctis Lucis Caelum, and once you kicked me so hard you put a hole through your sock. Then you fu-- Then you got out a hand-sewing kit and darned it right there and then.”

“Why did I kick you?”

Child prodigy, right. Multiple people could have witnessed that and have the same information. “I said you were too small to protect Noct and you should leave it to me. You kicked me in the chin. And my dad cursed me out for picking on you.” That had smarted at the time because it had only been words, and Ignis was the one who'd made it physical. He'd bawled his eyes out, actually. “Then the next day you marched right up to dad, apologised, and told him you'd been the 'instigator'.”

Ignis stared at Gladio hard. It wasn't as penetrating as a tiny kid in overlarge clothes. “You got much bigger.”

“You will too.” He carefully washed the gunk off Ignis' face and then disposed of the washcloth inside the plastic bag. He tied it off at the top and put it back in the armiger, in case they needed it to either find or make the cure.

“What am I like when I'm big? Am I a good advisor?”

“Kid, when you're big you're good at everything.”

###

Darkness hit fast after their long day. After he'd carried Ignis back to the haven, he built and stoked a fire. Ignis settled into Prompto's side and was asleep within moments. They'd have to wake him up again once food was ready but for now they let him sleep. Noct was playing on his phone. Fat lot of help he was.

“Think you can make four Cup Noodles without killing us all?” Gladio asked Noct. 

“I can handle boiling water.”

Gladio pulled each pot from the armiger and threw them one by one at Noct. He caught the first without looking up from his phone but the rest caught him by surprise. He dropped his phone in his lap, practically juggling to contain all of them. He vanished his phone but carried the noodles to the camping stove. He boiled the water without complaint. This was a first. Doing what Gladio asked with minimal attitude?

Once he'd poured the water into the plastic cups, he scowled at Prompto and Ignis.

“I can't believe Iggy was this cute,” Prompto said. One of Ignis' hands was curled in the fabric of Prompto's tank top. “Not that he's not cute now.”

“Why does he like you so much?” Noct said.

“Aww,” Gladio said. “Someone upset he's not Iggy's favourite anymore?”

“No! Shut up.”

“And I'm very likeable, thank you very much,” Prompto said.

“It just doesn't make sense. He knows me and Gladio. You're the stranger here.”

Damn, it was like they had two kids to babysit. Gladio stirred the noodles since Noct wasn't gonna and he wasn't having a Cup Noodle that was raw at the bottom. “The you he knows can't even make full sentences yet.”

“Prompto can barely make full sentences now.”

“Hey!”

They all shut up as Ignis stirred. But he only snuggled closer into Prompto's side, drooling on his shirt.

“Chill out, princess,” Gladio said, giving Noct a friendly shove.

###

They had to wake Ignis to get him to eat. Noct stared at Ignis yumming up the Cup Noodles like he'd never seen them before. Absently, he picked the veg out of his with his fork, dropping them into Gladio's cup. Which usually only Ignis let him get away with.

“So, uh,” Prompto said. “What are gonna do?”

“Guess we should get him some clothes first.” They couldn't haul him around in one of his adult-sized shirts and even one of Prompto's would be long enough to trip him over. “Then see if Dave's ever heard of this happening to any of the hunters. How you doing, Iggy? Feeling healthy?”

Ignis sucked up the last of his noodles and nodded. “I'm quite well, thank you Gladiolus.”

Which made Prompto squeak about how cute he was and take a picture. Ignis crawled closer to him to get a better look at his camera. That same insatiable curiosity that was still there in the older Ignis. He settled between Prompto's legs as Prompto showed him the camera's functions and the pictures he'd taken that day, with a lot of babble about aperture and ISOs and all the crap Gladio usually zoned out on when Prompto really got going.

Ignis paid rapt attention, either pretending to be interested or actually interested, Gladio had never been able to tell. He touched his tiny fingers to the screen and asked questions about everything. Gladio caught himself smiling, the grin freezing on his face when he turned to Noct. Who was outright glowering. Somehow, even the way he sucked up his noodles managed to be sullen.

“You've gotta get over this, princess,” Gladio said, keeping his voice low.

“There's nothing to get over.”

“Uh-huh.”

Gladio gave Noct a lot of crap, often for good reason, but if there was one thing he gave him credit for it was the ability to realise when he was up his own ass. His face relaxed and he looked sidelong at Gladio, a little sheepish. “Maybe I'm not doing great with this.”

“Maybe.”

“Just... He won't even come near me.”

“I get it.” And Gladio did. Noct and Iggy had been attached at the hip since they were kids. Had played together. Had shared a bed when Noct had nightmares. If Iris had turned tiny and then refused to have anything to do with him, Gladio wouldn't know how to react. “But Iggy's a kid right now. An actual kid. And you're a grown-up. So act like it.”

###

They headed to the hunter outpost where they'd last seen Dave, stopping on the way to pick up some kid-sized clothes. Whenever Gladio and Ignis met as kids, Ignis had been wearing miniature versions of the kind of clothes he wore as an adult. Smart shirts and trousers. But he didn't complain about the chocobo print T-shirt or jeans they gave him. Didn't even complain when Prompto squealed about it and took a million pictures.

Noct was doing better, or at least looked like he was. Even though Ignis walked everywhere hand-in-hand with Prompto and barely acknowledged Noct, he was trying. Only glared when he was sure neither Ignis nor Prompto could see. He was doing it now, strolling along behind the two of them while Prompto happily chattered away at Ignis.

“Proud of ya,” Gladio said, slapping Noct on the back. He wasn't prepared for it and stumbled forward a couple of steps. Which served him right for not engaging his core like Gladio had told him he had to a million times. “Prompto's got no idea how mad he's got you.”

Noct rolled his eyes at him. “Let's just find out how to fix this.”

They handed in the dog tags they had for Dave and got their gil in return. “So...” Gladio said. Dave had cast a few looks at Ignis, still wearing the oversized glasses since they hadn't been able to find anything with the prescription kid Ignis had memorised. “Bit of a predicament, here.”

“Thought he was usually taller,” Dave said. “What'd the daemon look like?”

“Gross,” Noct said.

“Like,” The battle had been so all-out Prompto hadn't managed to take any pictures. Prompto pulled his scariest face. Made him look like he was bearing down on a really difficult shit. He wiggled his fingers in front of his teeth. “Like that.”

Real helpful, as usual. “It was grey. Had a face like a squid and about thirty tentacles, wore a tattered cloak thing. Thought it was some kind of mindflayer derivative but it was bigger, it moved faster, and it was out in daylight. It sprayed ink. That's what did this.”

“You kill it?” Dave asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, that woulda been my first suggestion for reversing it. You get the body?”

“There ain't a body. Just that black goop they all turn into. I've got some of the ink but other than that, nothing. You ever seen anything like this before?”

“Sorry boys, that's a new one on me. My suggestion? Get yourselves to the Malmalam Thicket. See if the witch can help you.”

###

Gladio was no Ignis but boy could he grill a steak. They'd booked a caravan at the outpost while they figured this out. Regular-sized Ignis woulda called it a terrible waste of funds, especially since they couldn't take on any hunts right now. He'd also have something to say about three and a half garula steaks when their resources were already dwindling. But what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Mini Ignis had wandered over the grill to watch Gladio work. He watched him turn the steaks with wide eyes. Gladio had also stuck a couple of potatoes in foil on there. And he'd put Prompto to work making a side salad. They might not be eating gourmet but they'd be eating well. Noct got to sit this out since his idea of a salad was maybe eating the lettuce in a burger if it'd been drowned in sauce.

“What?” Gladio asked, as Ignis scrutinised his technique. “You gonna whip up a cinnamon rub?”

“I don't like cooking.”

“FOR REAL?” Prompto blared across the whole damn outpost. Noct had looked up from his phone, staring at Ignis like they had a changeling in their midst.

Actually, Gladio knew that about their very own Ignis. Other people liked to eat good food, so Ignis had learned how to make it. Whether he actually enjoyed it or not hadn't entered the equation. Ignis didn't half-ass anything once he'd set his mind to it. “How come?” Gladio asked, cause he'd always wanted to but asking adult Ignis had always seemed like poking at a wound. Rude too, since he scarfed down everything Ignis made.

“It takes too much time. I have more important things to do.”

Tempting to laugh at the idea of a five-year-old having more important things to do but hell, he'd had private tutors since then. And adult Ignis definitely had better ways to spend his time than preparing three course meals for a stroppy kid who'd spit all the vegetables out. “Yeah. That's why I'm a Cup Noodles guy. Delicious in three minutes flat.”

Ignis scowled in way that confirmed he was definitely not a changeling. “They should only be a once-in-a-while treat. The salt--”

“Grub's up!” Gladio announced before the adorable lecture could really get going. Since they were getting away with all kinds of things, he broke out the paper plates and plastic cutlery to serve it. “Princess, if you don't eat that salad I'm shoving it up your other end.”

He watched Ignis for his reaction to Noct's nickname. He had to know, right? If he knew Gladiolus was the shield, and they'd called Noct by his real name, he must've put the pieces together. But Ignis only took his plate with a prim 'thank you very much' and hunkered down next to Prompto on one of the patio chairs. Noct fixed Gladio with a gimlet stare and ate every last bite of the salad. He winced when he was done and washed his mouth out with a soda.

“Did you have to slice so many of those big, gross, mushy tomatoes?”

“Slim tomato pickings in the cooler.” But maybe he had went hog wild since they needed to use the last of them up. “But there was lettuce, spring onions, radish, and your personal favourite: rocket. Proud of you, kid.”

“Can't believe you made me eat rocket. I should fire you.”

“Hey,” Prompto said. “Don't rocket the boat.”

Ignis giggled and Prompto grinned down at him, in the middle of cutting his steaks into smaller pieces. That soured Noct's mood more than the rocket had. He quickly shot his nasty look down at his steak, tearing into with his bare hands like it was the garula it'd came from. Usually he'd just kick Prompto under the table for an awful pun. And then Ignis would make an even worse one, cause nobody'd dare kick Ignis.

“So...” Gladio said. “The Malmalam Thicket, huh?”

“It's too dangerous,” Noct said, snapping his gaze back up to Gladio. “Mandrakes, soldier wasps, gigantoads, shieldshears... This might wear off. We can't risk it until we're certain.”

Well, well, well. He actually had a point. They couldn't drag any kid – even if it was Ignis – through a freaking nightmare world of bugs, poisonous fungi, and killer toads unless they had to. And daemon inflictions did tend to wear off. Hell, one time when they'd been out of gold needles Gladio had carried a petrified Ignis on his shoulder for five miles only to have him revive and chew him out for the manhandling. “We can't wait forever.”

“I know that. We can wait two weeks at least. Then if nothing changes, we'll come up with a plan.”

“Two weeks? Sure your bride-to-be can wait that long?”

“Luna would understand.”

Again, Gladio waited for Ignis' reaction. Surely it had to be news to him that his future king was getting married? Nothing. He just ate his steak with his knife and fork. He had been a relatively quiet kid but not this quiet. “That good with you, Iggy?”

“I don't want to hinder you.”

“No way!” Prompto said. “We could use the break. You don't even wanna know when the last time we got to wash our underwear was before this. I dunno about you guys but I've been turning mine inside-out.”

Ignis wrinkled his nose. “That's unhygienic.”

“You're telling me. At least I don't go commando, _Gladio_.”

“Dude!” Noct said. “Inappropriate. Watch your mouth around him.”

“I'm not a baby,” Ignis said. 

They locked eyes. Ignis looked deadly serious, lips pursed into a thin line. In about ten years that look would have them all running for the hills. It was the warning for an imminent Iggysplosion and no one wanted to be in the blast radius of one of those. But Noct didn't seem to get that even if it was a tinier, cuter version, this was still Ignis.

“You're five,” Noct said. “And Gladio's butt isn't a child-friendly topic.”

“Don't you scold Prompto.”

Gladio pretended to wipe his mouth with a napkin so he didn't laugh and break the tension. The tableau unfolding in front of him was this: Prompto was turning bright red and making a high-pitched noise only dogs could hear; Ignis was glaring with all the force of his adult self concentrated into a smaller area; Noct was going back to his food like none of this was happening.

“Wouldn't want anything to upset Prompto,” Noct muttered.

 _Oof._ And just when Gladio was starting to have faith he could deal with this like an adult.

“Are you... mad at me?” Prompto said and – _Astrals no_ – there was a tremble in his voice. Poor guy always did act like a kicked puppy when he thought he'd done something to upset someone. In battle he'd take on a charging behemoth head on no matter how many times they told he was a ranged fighter and he needed to stay back, but he wasn't good with this stuff. “Noct?”

“Why would I be mad? You haven't done anything. You're just the greatest babysitter of all time. Shame you don't have any little brothers or sisters, huh?”

Prompto's face froze in that kicked-puppy expression. All right, Gladio wasn't laughing now. They all knew enough about Prompto to know that family was a no-go topic. He was going to haul Noct off into the woods for an ass-whooping he'd feel until he got over himself. But Ignis got there first.

“You're very thoughtless,” he said, hopping down off his chair. He took Prompto's hand in his. “Let's take our meal elsewhere, Prompto.”

With one last wounded look at Noct, Prompto let himself be dragged to the bench outside the Kenny Crow's. They finished their meal there, although Prompto was mostly just dragging his food around his plate.

“Well-handled, your majesty,” Gladio said.

“Shut the fuck up! I know.”

###

They didn't argue a lot but all four of them in confined spaces, constantly up in each other's business, it could get grating. Even Ignis snapped sometimes. Way less than he ought to considering he took it upon himself to do their cooking, dishes, washing, and driving more often than not. But Noct had never went for Prompto's throat like that before. Gladio figured the best thing to do was keep them separate until they both cooled down. Which usually worked when someone had heard that fucking chocobo theme tune nine thousand times too many, or Noct hadn't had enough sleep and was like a couerl with toothache, or when Gladio was about ready to say fuck the line of Lucis and throw Noct through a window.

Except the only smiles Prompto had given in the past four hours were fake ones when Ignis spoke to him. They were wandering round the outpost together, in Gladio's line of sight but too far to hear anything they were saying. And Prince Bitch Fit hadn't moved from his chair. He stared down at his phone gloomily, only occasionally scrolling through it. So maybe this was the kind of thing that escalated when they were separated.

“Why the hell would you say that to him?” Gladio said.

“It's true.”

Gladio kicked him in the ankle so hard he nearly face-planted into his phone. “Stop being such a sulky little bitch. You ain't the only one worried about Iggy, you know. What the hell'd you expect Prompto to do? Tell a little kid to leave him alone?”

Noct pulled his legs up into the seat of the chair, crouching like a royal goblin. Ignis would have flipped his lid at that. _You'll regret that posture later, Noct. Think of your back._ “Don't be stupid.”

“Man, you're lucky regular-sized Iggy can't see you right now. He taught you better than this.”

“I know, all right?! I get it. You don't have to keep telling me I'm an asshole.”

“I do if you're gonna keep being one.”

Noct peered over his knees to give Gladio the baby stink-eye he'd been perfecting since he was eight-years-old. “I was _trying_. I don't know why I--”

An engine rumbled overhead. Oh, shit. Gladio flung the caravan door open. If the MT dropship didn't spot Noct then maybe it wouldn't land. But Noct wasn't paying any attention. He'd jumped out of his chair – for fuck's sake, that would only make him easier to spot -- and was staring with his mouth open at Ignis and Prompto.

Ignis had spotted the dropship too. “What that?” he asked, pointing up at the sky. And he'd wriggled out of Prompto's grip before Prompto's brain could catch up with the situation. “Imperials?” And then Ignis was running out onto the road. Way too fast, even on his much-shorter legs.

Prompto tore after him. Tackled him out on the open, on the road, rolling him underneath him. The dropship stopped. MTs started to pour out of it.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Noct warped. Right in front of them, catching his sword as he landed.

_Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck._

Usually it didn't matter that Gladio was slower than the rest of them because he could tank blows that would tear them in half. Usually, one dropship was nothing to worry about. But usually Prompto was firing from a distance, covering their blind spots. Not curled up over a tiny kid. Usually, Ignis was leaping from one magitek to another, slicing them in half with his lance. Usually, Noct wasn't trying to cover his back and his front at once.

Gladio ran faster than he'd ever ran in his entire life. He summoned his sword and shield as he went, blue sparks streaking past him. The world went slow-mo. Gladio saw the axeman raise its axe over Noct's head. Saw the bullets flying toward him. Saw the assassins move to Noct's open flanks. Saw the exact moment Noct realised he couldn't warp away, cause that'd leave Prompto and Ignis completely open to every last bit of it. He summoned a shield.

He crashed into Noct. The axe bit into his shoulder. Too high on adrenaline to even feel it, he shoved the axeman away. Noct was screaming, Prompto was screaming, Ignis was screaming, but there was no time for any of that.

“Get your head outta your ass! Noct! Prompto!”

He tore the axeman in two with his sword. Noct scrambled to his feet and warped to get the riflemen. Prompto rolled up onto his knees, one hand drawing a gun, the other pulling Ignis into his chest. He got the assassins right between the eyes. Then it was easy enough for all of them to pick off the rest.

“What the hell was that?!” Gladio roared when there was none left.

“Gladio.” Prompto's voice was trembling. He was pale, even though he didn't have a scratch on him.

Gladio realised the hand still gripping his shield was slippery. He was covered in blood all down his arm from his shoulder to his wrist, all over his side... He stared at it and couldn't make sense of it. Couldn't connect the sight with any sensation. His fingers loosened. His shield crashed into the dirt. The last thing he saw was Noct warping toward him, potion flying from his hand.


	2. Chapter 2

Urgghhh. Did his body go on a three day bender without him? Gladio tried to sit up and all the blood rushed out of his head, so he lay back down again. The last time he'd fainted was, what? Oh yeah. When he was fourteen. He'd had a bad head cold. Hadn't eaten breakfast. Had done a full morning's training and then threw himself into a run. Fell clean off his feet, woke up to some old lady asking him if he knew his parent's number. He touched his shoulder. There was a new scar there, etched deep into the muscle. The room was dark. He could just make out the ceiling and his bare feet wedged right up against the base of the bed where it met the wall. His upper body was hiked up on what must be every single pillow in the caravan. A kid was crying somewhere.

Right. Iggy.

He made himself sit up this time, just managing to avoid smacking his head on the ceiling. These things really weren't built for guys his size. The door to the room opened.

“Hey buddy,” Prompto said, pushing a glass of something bright orange into his hand. “Heard you moving around. How you doing?”

“I fainted?” Prompto's eyes welled up. “Shit. No. Don't cry. I'm fine. Fine. Just woozy.” He gulped the orange juice down. It tasted strange and chalky but that was the blood loss. It would help. He drained the whole thing.

“Sorry.” Prompto sniffled but made a visible effort to buck himself up. “Just. That was-- That was a lot. A lot of blood. And other stuff. That was really... a lot. We needed help to get you back here, you know? Only Iggy can carry you normally.”

More like Ignis could sling one arm over his shoulder and help him along. If Prompto's lip wasn't still wobbling, Gladio woulda laughed at the image of Prompto and Noct trying to haul him outta the road. “That Iggy crying?”

“Yeah. He kinda hasn't stopped.”

He'd never seen Ignis cry. Not even when he was this age for real. Not even after Noct's injury. Not even after the news about Insomnia. Gladio shuffled over to the edge of the bed. 

“Should you be--?” Prompto started.

No, he definitely shouldn't. “I'm getting up. Get on board and get outta the way.”

Prompto hovered next to him, like he'd be able to do anything but get flattened if Gladio did fall. Gladio stooped to get through the door. Noct was carrying Ignis, who was koalaed around him and sobbing into his chest. Noct was walking around the tiny seating area, shushing and rocking him. Which was what you did with a crying baby. Not a kid Iggy's age.

“Hey,” Gladio said. He lowered himself into one of the seats, riding out a dizzy spell. “Give him here.”

Noct deposited Ignis into Gladio's lap. Noct's eyes were red too. What a full-on shitshow this had been.

“I'm sorry Gladiolus,” Ignis said. “I didn't want the empire to attack the people here and...”  
“Hey, hey. Nothing wrong with trying to protect people, you just gotta be more sensible about it.” He gave Noct and Prompto a pointed look. All that combat training and they'd both left themselves wide open. “You see a dropship again, you hide. They're looking for Noct. They don't usually land unless they see us. Got it?”

Ignis nodded, lower lip still jutting out and fat tears still rolling down his cheeks. “You were hurt.”

“Yeah and it coulda been worse. Which is why we need you to protect yourself. You taking risks makes things a whole lot harder for us. This place ain't like back home.”

“I want to help.”

“Help us by not doing anything crazy like that every again.” It almost made him bawl his eyes out too, appealing to people who were gone, but he kept his tone light. “What're we gonna tell your uncle or the king if anything happens to you?”

“I don't want to be useless!”

“I'm not telling you to be useless. You already know triage, right?”

The tears were drying up, turning to a scowl. “Of course.”

“This is like that. You've gotta prioritise to stop everything getting worse. I can teach you to fight.” He knew some very basic self defence at this age but nothing like Gladio could teach him. “But what you did today, that coulda got all of us killed. No use crying about it. Just do better next time, and do what I say. You got it?”

“I can fight?”

“Eventually but that's not what I asked.”

“I understand, Gladiolus.”

###

Prompto was cooking this time. Which wasn't as bad a prospect as Noct but Gladio kept eyeing the kitchen. The first sign of smoke and he was taking over. Ignis was helping, passing over ingredients and herbs in the small kitchen. Gladio would've been cooking already if Prompto hadn't “whoa buddy, take it easy”ed him and started the hob like he meant business. Truth be told, Gladio was still a little woozy. Logically, he knew it was temporary. His body was just regulating itself after the blood loss. Didn't mean it wasn't frustrating. He chewed on the jerky Noct had pulled out of the armiger and tried not to resent him for the mother hen act when he knew he really did need to build his strength back up. Just... that was usually Iggy's job.

“You shouldn't have told him he could fight,” Noct said, swiping a strip of jerky from the packet.

“Yeah? What if this is permanent?”

Noct might actually have shit himself. “It can't be.”

“Just cause none of us want it to be doesn't mean it can't be.” They should've all learned that by heart after what happened to Insomnia. “We were kids when we started combat training for real, you included. So don't give me that. We can't coddle him.”

“Like you've ever coddled anything your entire life.”

Gladio grit his teeth because what the fuck did Noct think he'd been doing for the past twenty years? If he thought he hadn't been coddled by everyone around him his entire life-- None of them needed to hear it right now. “I know Iggy can fight cause I saw him get from there,” he pointed to Ignis, now trying to peer over the counter at whatever Prompto was chopping. “To kicking my ass at least twice a week.” Anyway, why was he the one getting chewed out? “And you shouldn'ta dived into the road like that.”

“So I should've just let Prompto die? Then Ignis?”

“Don't be a dick. You shouldn'ta dived in there without a plan, wide open like that, like you've never been in a fight in your entire life. Everything I said to Ignis, that goes for you too. Protect your royal ass or we're all out here for nothing.”

“It all turned out fine!”

“Fine?” Gladio gestured to the new scar on his shoulder. “You call this fine? That coulda just as easily been you. Or Prompto. Or Ignis. If you'd gone and got yourself killed, we'd have been SOL, fighting a bunch of MTs with no weapons, no potions and a kid in tow.” No future, either. No Lucis. “Iggy didn't spend his entire life tutoring you so you could go ahead and be a dumbass anyway.”

Noct slumped down into the couch, so only his shoulders were touching the back of it and crossed his arms. Looked like he was melting out of sheer huffiness. “What are we gonna do?” he said. “If-- If Iggy doesn't go back to normal?”

“We'll figure it out. Ain't like it's the worst thing that's ever happened.”

###

It didn't seem so dire with their bellies full of the acceptable stir fry Prompto had made, Gladio had to admit. A stir fry that was pretty heavy on veg. Noct's bowl especially. And Noct ate it all up without a word. Which made Gladio wonder if the weird squid monster hadn't done something to them both too. Pettiness wasn't like Prompto. And they'd been out of veg earlier, so it had been pre-planned. Pre-planned pettiness. That was so unlike Prompto that something had to be off.

Gladio dried the dishes while Prompto washed. Noct had his face glued to his phone. Ignis was doing a secondary drying, since apparently Gladio's technique wasn't up to his standards. He had to stand on his tiptoes to reach each dish. After a while, Gladio started absently handing each dish to Ignis, then placing it on the dish rack when he was done.

“You worried Noct's gonna get scurvy or something?” Gladio asked.

“Huh?” Prompto said.

Ignis froze on the dish he was drying, then hurriedly started back up. _Ah._ “You know,” Gladio said. “Heaping on the veg.” Come to think of it, Prompto had been distracted while they were eating. Ignis had been all but begging to see his photos again.

“Dude. What? I didn't even chop an onion. I sacrificed _flavour_.”

Ignis tried to unobtrusively slip the plate onto the counter. He tried to slip away. Gladio grabbed the back of his T-shirt. “No you don't, you little evil mastermind. Fess up.”

Ignis stilled. Gladio let go so he could turn around to face them. “It's for his own good.”

“Iggy?” Prompto said. “Did you try to poison Noct with bean sprouts? Not cool, man.”

“He needs to eat every food group.” Ignis titled his chin up and puffed out his cheeks a bit, like he was a blowfish trying to look bigger in front of predators. “He could get a magnesium deficiency or constipation--”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Noct unfolded himself from the couch. “I eat enough, all right? I made a deal with you, Ignis. I'd eat three servings a day if he-- if you substituted the really gross stuff. I'm not gonna drop dead. I'm just not a freak who eats steamed broccoli like Gladio.”

“You're totally maligning broccoli, dude,” Prompto said. “You can pretend to be a giant, eating a whole forest of tiny trees.”

“Those trees taste like sh-- garbage and giant you has garbage taste. Anyway, I like bean sprouts. And bell peppers. And grated carrot. Crunchy, see? Not slimy.”

“Broccoli's crunchy.”

“Why are you both so in love with broccoli? It's like bitter dishwater with weird strings. Go and marry a broccoli thingy if you love it so much.”

“Stalk,” Gladio said.

“Yeah, you would stalk it. Weirdo.”

Ignis giggled. Oh, shit. Apparently he knew what stalking meant. Then he sharply cut it off when everyone looked at him. “I don't like broccoli either.” They continued to stare. “Is that--? Is that not okay?”

Not really. Gladio had seen Ignis eat broccoli. He'd seen him eat it without any outward sign that he didn't like it. He'd seen Ignis eat leftover broccoli from Noct's plate, although not since they reached the food amnesty Noct was talking about. They'd all seen him do it. “Hey Iggy,” Gladio said, crouching down to his level. Which yeah, seemed patronising, but he didn't want this to seem like a rule an adult was laying down. “You know you don't have to do anything you really don't like doing, right?”

“I know about stranger danger.”

Prompto made that high-pitched sound again. Noct just covered his face and planted himself right back on the couch.

“That's not-- Uh, yeah. You shouldn't do stuff that makes you feel bad that way either, but I mean generally. If you hate the taste of something, you don't have to eat it. If you don't like doing something and it's not in your job description, you don't have to do it.”

“I'm not lazy.”

Shiva's tits. Where the fuck had all this come from because it sure as shit hadn't come from anyone who'd been in Gladio's life. A tutor maybe? “Hey. You think I'd be okay with you being lazy? If you got lazy that'd mean I'd have to work twice as hard, and then I'd be twice as big, and it's hard enough not to break the furniture as it is.”

Ignis smiled a little at that. “If I don't endure the tedium, the unpleasantness, or trials, I can't be worthy of a king.”

That sounded like Ignis. But future Ignis. Those sounded like the words of an adult. “Who says?”

But Ignis was too smart for that. He must've realised he'd gotten someone else into trouble because the half-smile vanished. “It's obvious,” he said, quickly.

Gladio chanced a glance at Noct. He wasn't looking but he was listening, shoulders tense and lifted up to his ears. “What do you like to do, Iggy?”

He thought he knew. All these years, he thought he knew Ignis better than anyone he'd ever known except Iris. Did he even like Ebony? Or did he just drink it cause it kept him awake long enough to do every endless, gruelling task he set himself? Was what he knew some mirror of his own wants and needs, subsuming Ignis' real self? How the fuck hadn't he noticed this?

And still, Ignis was looking at them. Scrutinising their faces. Trying to work out the answer they expected from him rather than just telling them exactly what it was.

“Reading?” he said.

Probably true. Or true enough, anyway. Ignis did enjoy reading. Dry political thrillers and espionage stuff when it wasn't for work. But that was an acceptable hobby. One that tallied nicely with his other duties. It wasn't like Noct fishing. Or Prompto taking pictures. It wasn't just for its own sake.

“You see a library around here?” Gladio said. “Try again.”

He racked his brains, trying to think of everything he'd ever seen Ignis do. So maybe he wasn't ecstatic about cooking but he definitely liked eating. He always tried out new stuff whenever they were at restaurants, especially the kind of delicacies that would make Noct have a full-blown meltdown if he was forced to eat them. He dressed well but Gladio didn't know if that was just because he needed to look respectable. He hated idle time, was always doing something with his hands. But because he wanted to? Or because he didn't have time to do anything else? What the hell did Ignis do when they weren't around?

Why the hell was he even trying to figure it out? Suggesting something would defeat the purpose.

“Astronomy,” Noct suggested. “He had this book on the constellations. Was really upset when I scratched it up.”

Well, that was one thing. “Anything else, Iggy?”

“I like making things. Building things.”

Noct was up again. He'd had a revelation. “Yeah! He had all those plastic kits with the cogs and stuff. You remember those? And he tried to show me how to build stuff with them but I didn't wanna _engineer_ stuff. I wanted to play. He built the Citadel once. It had a glowing crystal and everything.”

“And how long did it take you to destroy it?” Gladio said.

“Hey! I didn't. That thing was probably still in citadel storage-- I loved that thing. Made Iggy make me a little Noct figure so I could play in it.”

“Did you like doing that?” Gladio asked. “You weren't just trying to make something for Noct to play with?”

“I wouldn't have wanted him to play with it. He's always sticking things in his mouth.”

Prompto suppressed a snort-laugh. Noct turned red. Anyway, this was a promising lead. Just a shame they had no way of getting cogs, plastic, or any kind of kids' toys out here. Maybe Cid would have something at Hammerhead but that was a few hours drive from here and there was no way they could risk that until Gladio was back to full strength. “Anything at the store?”

“Nah,” Prompto said. “Aww man.” He jumped up on the balls of his feet all of a sudden. “Wait a minute. Wait right here!” He dashed out of the caravan like his ass was on fire. He returned a half hour later, dirty and beaming like Cindy had given him her spare bikini. “Check this out!”

He dumped an armful of stuff on the caravan's table. No. Not stuff. It was trash. He'd dumped an armful of trash on their table like he wanted them to lose the security deposit. Empty bottles, strings, matchsticks, lollipop sticks, cans, magazines...

“Might have to wash some of it!” He still had that manic grin.

“Wash yourself!” Gladio said. “You stink.”

“Not yet.” He placed a pair of scissors and a glue stick down on the table with the same reverence as one of the royal arms. “You can build stuff, see?”

###

Thankfully, Prompto did shower. And Gladio washed the stuff that needed it. Mostly the cans that still had a few drops or other of something in them. Ignis didn't seem perturbed by the quality of his building materials. He separated each type into piles and then got to work with the scissors. The shape that was taking place in front of them almost made Gladio choke up. Noct stared at the foundations. The little trash representation of the statue that used to stand in front.

Prompto came out of the shower with a towel slung around his shoulders and stopped dead when he saw it. Fuck. Of course that's what he was gonna build after Noct had said how much he'd loved it.

The Citadel.

“Oh-- oh.” Prompto sat on the floor beside Ignis. “That's some fast work there, buddy. And all from memory, huh?”

Ignis was concentrating so hard it took him a while to realise Prompto was even next to him. “Yes.” He was busy tying matchsticks together since the glue stick wouldn't quite hold them. “I might not have enough.”

“How about something smaller? What's your favourite thing?”

Ignis mumbled something, blushing. He wrapped the string round and round his matchsticks. Prompto laughed fondly. “Noct, huh?”

“I guess he's all right,” Gladio said, as the tips of Noct's ears turned red. “Sometimes.”

“He's definitely smaller than the Citadel.”

“Only official royal sculptors can make likenesses of the king and prince,” Ignis said, scandalised.

“I seem to remember a coupla things pinned to Regis' office wall,” Gladio said. “Didn't look like anyone commissioned those.” Maybe he was just salty cause Noct and Ignis' childhood drawings always had him the same size as the adults, and Noct had a habit of drawing him with big sharp teeth. Anyway, that was an archaic rule. He definitely remembered some King Regis bobble heads. “Shame you didn't find a furball while you were dumpster diving, Prompto. Woulda been ideal for that mop of his.”

“I don't have to take that from a guy with a mullet,” Noct said.

“What do you like apart from Noct?” Prompto said.

“Yeah, you gotta have higher standards than that.”

“Oh, I know! Noct said you like astronomy, right? Stars and stuff? Watch this.” Prompto took one of the magazines and carefully tore a square from it. Tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth, he folded it and folded it and folded it again until he had made a star. “Here, Iggy.”

He placed the origami star in Ignis' palm. Ignis stared at it like it was the most amazing gift he'd ever gotten in his entire life. Even though Ignis' uncle had been known to uncover out of print books in their original bindings for birthdays. Ignis' face split into a grin. “Thank you.”

“I'll show you how to make 'em. Watch.”

Ignis picked it up quickly. He'd churned out a dozen of them in no time. Then he seemed to lose interest, making braids out of string and paper instead.

“What'd you used to play with when you were a kid, big guy?” Prompto asked.

“Toy swords.” And real swords as soon as he could. “Iris' dolls.”

Noct choked. “Really? You never mentioned that before.”

“She made me have tea parties.”

“Wait. You're eight years older than Iris. You're telling me you were having dolly tea parties when you were on my a-- when you were telling me to get serious.”

“I got no reason to be insecure about my masculinity, Your Punyness.”

“I told you to quit calling me that!”

“Before Iris came along, though,” Prompto said. “Just toy swords? Seems like a kinda violent childhood there, bud.”

“I did a lot of training. And reading.”

“Ummm. Anything else?”

Gladio frowned, trying to squeeze the memories into his head. He'd had a good childhood. A good family. But he didn't remember a lot of playing until Iris. He didn't remember ever feeling like there was something missing other than his mom either. “I wanted to be my dad. And that meant being the best shield in the world.” He tried not to look at the half-finished Citadel.

“Gladiolus,” Ignis said. “For you.” He handed Gladio one of the origami stars with the braid threaded through a hole in one of the points. Prompto and Noct got one too. Ignis tied his smaller version around his wrist. “Now we can match.”

“Yeah!” Prompto pumped his fist, the star bracelet already on. “Star squad!”

A black star dangled from Noct's wrist. Prompto's was multicolour but the braid was silver, wrapped around with foil. Gladio's star was magazine multicolour too but it had a little extra shield charm made out of the insides of a can. He swallowed and cleared his throat. “Yeah. Star squad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It got longer ;_;


	3. Chapter 3

Sleeping arrangements were easier than normal without having to wrangle two six foot Tetris pieces into one bed and a couch that was too short for even Prompto. There was no way Gladio was even thinking about trying to fit on the couch while he was still woozy and they had Noct's back to think about, so Prompto laid his sleeping bag out on the floor in the living area.

“Who'd you wanna bunk with, Igster?” Prompto asked.

“Gladiolus.”

Huh. He'd been expecting Prompto considering how pally they'd been. There were intermittent blue sparks for a while as everyone pulled their sleeping clothes, toothbrushes, and toiletries out of the armiger. Noct pulled the pyjamas they'd bought for Ignis out and shook them a couple of times. He opened the legs out and crouched so Ignis could step into them.

“I don't need help getting dressed,” Ignis said.

Noct dropped the pyjamas. Some kinda Pavlovian reaction to getting told off by Ignis even if he was half his size now. “Right,” he said. “My bad.” He took his armful of stuff and ducked into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

Damn, he'd thought they were through with this bullshit.

“What's with you and Noct, kid?” Gladio asked, as Ignis stubbornly shoved himself into his pyjamas. “You know who he is, right?”

“He's the prince.”

By all appearances, Prompto was switching out his day clothes for his own pyjamas but he wasn't doing the usual running commentary, obviously listening hard.

“Yeah, he's the prince. The one you're gonna advise someday. So what's up?”

“Nothing.” Ignis folded his clothes. He spent some time lining up their corners with the corner of the table. “I'm tired.”

 _You ain't getting out of it that easily, kid._ “Uh-huh. You're bumming Noct out and Noct being bummed out is a pain in my a-- a pain in my butt. So spill it.”

“He didn't help with the dishes or the cleaning, and he's mean, and he's rude when people do things for him, and he only sits around and plays with his phone, and he doesn't comport himself with dignity, and he doesn't brush his hair, and--”

“Whoa now. Thought he was your favourite?”

“ _My_ Noct is my favourite. _He's_ not!”

“You don't know him very well yet, Iggy,” Prompto said, eyes darting to the shower.

“Why would I want to?”

Ouch. The caravan was so cramped that Noct had to have heard at least the gist of this. And Gladio had no idea what to say or do. Prompto and Ignis were the natural peacemakers of the group, and it was nothing Gladio hadn't said to Noct's face. But even he'd admit that Noct had some good points. “Hey, he saved you. You and Prompto. Didn't even stop to think about whether it was a good idea or not. Just jumped right in.” And that was why as much of a pain in the ass as Noct could be sometimes, he was still Gladio's king.

“Why didn't he use his magic?”

“What?” Gladio said, at the same time as Prompto said: “Huh?!”

“His magic,” Ignis repeated, more loudly. And the more he looked at their blank faces, the more it looked like he was going to have a full-blown tantrum.

“Your really don't want him throwing those flasks around,” Prompto said. “Gladio nearly lost his eyebrows last time.”

“What are you on about?” Ignis' face was getting red. “Why would he be throwing a flask around? He's a grown-up. Grown-up Noct is meant to be the best king yet. He's going to expand the wall again and make everything better!”

Oh. Shit. Oh fuck. Oh shitting fuck. How the hell had he gotten that impression from three-year-old Noct? He'd been a cute kid but you couldn't fix all the shit in the world with cuteness. He looked at Prompto. He looked like a fish that'd leapt out of his tank. No help there. He guessed it was all on him, then.

“Hey, that's a lot of pressure to put on a three-year-old.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Ignis immediately burst into tears. He bunched his fists up and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Why aren't we in Insomnia?”

“Noct's engaged. We're taking him to his wedding in Altissia.”

“Liar!” He was still shielding his tears with his fists and he was shaking with all the restrained sobs but he said that loud and clear.

It was true! It was just... not the entire truth, and he'd thought he'd get away with it because he didn't expect Ignis to even be aware of lies of omission yet.

“Noct doesn't want to get married.”

“Your Noct?” Prompto tried.

“Any Noct!”

Fuck. _Come on, Prompto. You're supposed to be good with this stuff._ Fuck. He'd know what to do if this was Iris. But Ignis never needed anything – not that he showed, anyway. “Hey, he likes Luna a lot.”

“You didn't answer my question!”

Yeah, he didn't answer his question about Insomnia and he wasn't gonna. They were all already tired and stressed enough. He wasn't gonna dampen the mood like that for the same reason he wouldn't slit a colostomy bag open over their heads. “Iggy, you've gotta give this Noct a chance.”

“Why should I?”

“Hey, I'm pretty awesome, right?” Prompto said. Oh thank the fucking astrals, he must have a plan.

Ignis stopped covering his eyes to peer suspiciously at Prompto over the top of his fists. “Yes?”

“Right. Pretty great. And what kind of friends would a pretty great guy like me, have? Also pretty great guys, yeah? And Noct is my best friend.”

“Noct is _my_ best friend.”

Huh. Pretty possessive for all the stuff he'd said about Noct a minute ago. “Maybe he likes you a teensy tiny bit more than me,” Prompto said. “Noct's stressed. And people say stuff they don't mean when they're stressed.”

Prompto's point obviously landed because Ignis dragged his fists down his cheeks, scrubbing into the tears as he went, and took a few shuddery breaths. “I really am tired,” he said.

It didn't look like Noct was gonna come out of the bathroom any time soon, so Gladio climbed into bed and got Ignis tucked in. Without brushing his teeth or taking the piss he desperately needed. But he couldn't see how coaxing (or dragging) Noct out of the bathroom would help right now. Hell, he could stay in there all damn night if it meant Gladio could get the full night's sleep he desperately needed.

He woke up twice through the night. Once when Noct slipped under the covers, accidentally touching his ice-cold foot to Gladio's calf. The second when Ignis ran his hands over the new scar on his shoulder, sniffling as quietly as he could.

He'd slept so hard he hadn't been able to rouse himself for either and by the time morning broke, they were like faded impressions of someone else's memory. Both Ignis and Noct were sound asleep. Noct again trying to leech the warmth from Gladio's body with his bare feet, faced away from him on the very edge of the bed but with his feet planted against Gladio's legs. Ignis was still squished up right against Gladio's chest, as far away as he could get from Noct on the small bed. Which was only a couple of inches.

Gladio had an idea.

He crept back, as far against the wall as he could get. Which dislodged Ignis from his chest. He flopped onto the mattress, sprawled out on his tummy. Okay. Phase one had been completed. Gladio did an awkward worm manoeuvre to get himself over to the edge of the bed without disturbing Ignis or Noct. He gingerly squatted above the bed, then straightened into the stooped-shouldered position he had to move around these tiny caravans in. Phase two out of the way. Now for phase three.

Noct could sleep through Titan himself standing on his face. So Gladio didn't have to to be too careful. He just gave him a little flip and placed one of his arms over Ignis. There. They could cuddle their differences out.

He ducked into the main area of the caravan. Prompto was still sleeping, just a fringe of blonde hair poking out of his sleeping bag. The night's rest had done Gladio good. He felt like he could take down a behemoth with his bare hands. He whistled as he started on breakfast. A mountain of scrambled eggs and buttered toast sounded good to him, so he pulled the ingredients from their armiger. As he did, it occurred to him that regular-sized Ignis probably had some kind of inventory for all this. And they hadn't been keeping it updated. At all. He always knew when they were low on stock of something, or they had ninety-nine gold needles, or whatever. But Gladio had never seen him write any of it down, so maybe he just memorised it?

There was a crash in the bedroom, followed by a high-pitched scream. Prompto leapt out of his sleeping bag, crouched and already summoning his gun. Shit. Gladio just remembered to turn off the hob before he investigated.

Noct was on the floor, trying to disentangle himself from the sheets that had gotten wrapped up around him. Ignis was crouched on the bed, hugging his knees.

“Uhhh...” Gladio said.

“What's going on?” Prompto said, trying to get a look at the scene over Gladio's shoulder.

Noct finally fought his way out of the sheets. “I musta... rolled over in my sleep or something. We woke up hugging. He didn't love it, I guess.”

“Noct!” Prompto said. “Of course he didn't. How would you have felt if you'd woken up with a strange grown-up cuddling you when you were little?”

“I was asleep! And I'm not strange. He's known me forever!”

Fuck. “It's my fault,” Gladio said. “I thought it'd help you two get along.” Noct and Ignis were always hugging when they were kids! He didn't think it was gonna be a whole thing. “I moved you.”

“The hell Gladio?!” Noct said.

“That was a crappy idea, big guy,” said Prompto.

Yeah, he knew that now. He just thought... fuck, he didn't know what he thought. That it'd remind them of good times and then everything would be fixed with the power of friendship, or something? The stranger danger stuff hadn't actually occurred to him because why the fuck would it? “You okay, Iggy?”

Ignis blinked at him over his knees. “I'm sorry for causing a scene.”

Ah. Shit. “I'm the one that caused the scene, kid.” What the fuck had he been doing? He'd never have just hugged regular-sized Ignis just because he looked like he needed it. Not least cause that was a good way to get himself stabbed. “You know... You know none of us would hurt you, right?”

“Of course. I got a fright. I'm sorry.”

Noct kicked the last of the blankets off himself and shoved past Gladio, whispering “asshole” on his way out.

###  
They had a silent breakfast, Noct sitting like Ramuh had created a bunch of tiny stormclouds over his head. Prompto was practically vibrating with nervous energy. He was like a dowsing rod for tension. Gladio couldn't even enjoy the scrambled eggs he'd been looking forward too. And they weren't as good as Iggy's. He'd used too much pepper and they were kinda bitter cause of it.

“We'd better clear out after this,” Gladio said. “Check-out's at ten.”

“Where to?” Prompto asked. 

“Lestallum. Safe there.”

“That's taking us further away from Malmalam Thicket,” Noct said.

“It's taking us further away from MT dropships, voretooth packs, and daemons, Prince Insightful. Or did you forget about yesterday already?”

“Guys,” Prompto said. “Can we not? I think Lestallum's a good idea. We can maybe pick up some more hunts there, get enough gil for more hotel stays.”

“Hunts?”

“Yeah, hunts. I can look after Iggy while you two do the monster-killing. Makes sense, right?”

It did. At least someone here had their head screwed on straight. “You up for that, Iggy?”

He'd been quiet since the incident this morning. Gladio hoped he hadn't traumatised the poor kid. “Can I see the power plant?”

“Course! Hey,” Prompto leaned down, like he was letting Ignis in on a secret. “We know the manager. You and me can get the grand tour.”

Ignis grinned. “Okay.”

###

They were all set and on their way to Lestallum when Noct took the car off-road and stopped it in the desert.

“What the hell, Noct?” Gladio said, as Noct got out. There was nothing for miles. No wildlife. Nothing to forage. Just sand, and three dumbasses with a kid who'd stopped for no reason.

“Iggy. Look,” Noct said, like Gladio wasn't storming up to him, ready to toss his ass back in the front seat. “But stay back.” Noct summoned a thundara flask into his hand, stopping Gladio in his tracks. “This is my magic.”

“Not the flasks!” Prompto said. “Noct! Not the flasks!”

Noct ignored him too and tossed the flask as far as he could throw it. On impact it erupted, criss-crossing the landscape in bright white forks of lightning that struck the sand hard enough to send up eddies of it. Two scrawny trees turned into blackened wisps. Flocks of birds scattered in every direction. Sand that had been disturbed rose into glass structures like modern art.

“See?” Noct said. “That's why I couldn't use it at the outpost.”

Ignis was peering out over the side of the car, gripping the door in both hands. His eyes were three times their normal size, magnified by the overlarge glasses. “Can you do it again?”

“Sure. You wanna see fira?”

###

The landscape ravaged by fire, ice, and lightning that Noct had left behind was gonna be a real puzzler for future geologists. It was worth it just for how it had made Ignis laugh, even if was unnerving how amused by wanton destruction the kid was. Gladio had to admit, it was impressive seeing the raw power like that. They were usually too busy having their sleeves set on fire or fighting off frostbite to appreciate it.

“Can you combine the different spells?” Ignis asked.

“Please don't,” Prompto said. “I don't wanna get lightning burns and burn-burns at the same time.”

“Yeah. You taught me how to,” Noct said, skirting over the subject of Prompto's many burns. “You're good at the magic stuff.”

“I have magic?”

“Sure. You-- Future you, I guess – can do all sortsa stuff that Gladio can't.”

“What's with the friendly fire?” Gladio said. He hadn't opened his mouth!

“Noct's all about friendly fire,” Prompto said. Probably still sore – literally and figuratively – from the time Noct had set the seat of his pants on fire with fira and then put it out with blizzara. “And yeah, Iggy, you make Gladio and Noct's swords do all the cool stuff.”

“I do plenty cool stuff on my own.”

“Nuh-uh. What's cooler? A giant sword or a giant sword that's also on fire?”

“The giant sword.”

“Pfft. Biased. What do you think's cooler, Iggy?”

“Daggers,” Ignis said.

“Can we get an impartial judge in here? Noct?”

“Shit!” Noct said. At first Gladio thought he was just overreacting to their little argument, then the car came to a shuddering stop. “It's--”

Gladio leaned forward. Saw the fuel indicator, indicating that they'd been running on fumes for a while. “Did you leave it running while you were pulling that stunt?”

“Shut it, Gladio. You can't even drive!”

“You did, didn't you? Unbelievable!”

“Uh, guys!” Prompto said. “You know I love you guys, right? And that whole brotherly squabbling thing you've got going on. But that herd of spiracorns really doesn't look friendly!”

###

The spiracorns were not friendly. And the frantic few minutes of avoiding being gored or stamped to death didn't improve anyone's mood. Least of all Gladio's, who'd had to chase after Noct, who'd decided he better warp as far away as possible to lead the spiracorns away from the car without telling anyone that was the plan. Prompto had stayed behind to guard the car with Ignis in it.

“You got a death wish or something?” Gladio asked Noct as they traipsed their way back to the regalia.

“It's called not wanting Ignis to get killed in the back seat of my dad's car.”

“If you don't want anyone killed, don't get outta my sight!”

“Like that's possible!”

“I swear to the Astrals, you're way more of a fucking brat than Ignis--” The Regalia coming into view stopped him short. Because it was empty. No Prompto. No Ignis. Just a crushed hood and a car that was seriously not going anywhere, no matter how much fuel they put into it.


	4. Chapter 4

They tried ringing but Prompto wasn't picking up. Noct tried to warp a-fucking-gain. Gladio grabbed the back of his T-shirt. The glaives could warp and Gladio had never been able to do it but apparently if you were attached to a warping person, they took you along with them. And it felt like someone was pulling your asshole out of your nostrils, then shoving them both back down via the stomach.

He doubled over into the grass, hurling up every meal he'd ever had.

“You done?” Noct asked.

“Are you? Go stay with the car and call Cindy, I'll find 'em.”

“Before or after you lose your lunch again?”

Gods-fucking-damnit. Gladio climbed back to his feet. “If you run off chasing them too then we've got no way of getting outta here when we do find them.”

“So you wanna split us up even more? How's that plan gonna work out? Bout as well as your weird forcing me to cuddle Iggy plan. I can call Cindy for a tow when we're all back together.”

Damn it, he hated it when Noct was right. “Prompto wouldn'ta hauled ass with Iggy without a good reason.”

“I know. So let's find them.”

“Don't go warping off just yet.” He backtracked to the car and Noct followed, on foot this time. If they were still in the dessert, the tracks would be easier to see, but there was some bent grass. Noct tried ringing Prompto again. Still no answer. “This way.” The tread of Prompto's boots was obvious for a little while, although there were no smaller footprints to indicate Ignis. He hoped that meant he was being carried. “Shit.” The whole footprints turned to partials, and then nothing as they headed into a copse of trees. A light drizzle started and the mud would slough away any other kind of clue.

“They can't have gotten far,” Noct said. “We weren't gone for that long.”

About half an hour if they totalled up leading the spiracorns away, the fight, and getting back. How far could a guy called Quicksilver get in half an hour? The footprints were light, his boots hadn't touched the ground long enough to leave much of an impression. He'd been running. And now they had no idea which direction Prompto had been running in, and trees packed too closely together on either side to give them any visibility.

“Yeah.” The drizzle turned into heavy drops that spotted their shoulders, their boots slipping on the mud as they struck off in the direction of Gladio's best guess. The kind of weather that brought gigantoads out. How fast was Prompto when he was carrying a kid? Fast enough to get out of the way of one of their rolls?

What was he running from?

Something big enough to crush a car.

“Hey,” Gladio said, cause letting his mind skitter off in that direction wasn't gonna help anyone. They slid on the wet grass as they tried to climb a slight incline, Gladio grabbing at the trees for support. “Was Iggy right?”

Noct's hair was plastered to his face. He was already shivering. “About what?”

“About you not wanting to get married.”

“I like Luna. A lot.”

“Coulda sworn I asked whether you want to get married.” The incline turned sharply into a decline, and Gladio caught Noct as he skidded past him. “Not about how swell a girl Luna is.”

Noct shook his hand off and picked his way down to not exactly solid but flat ground. “Does it matter?”

“Matters to me.”

Noct picked up his pace, keeping his back to Gladio. “It's not like they betrothed me to Aldercapt or whatever. It's – you know--” Noct flapped one arm. “ _You_ know. If they wanted you to have the strongest shield babies, they'd find you a wife even more freakishly big than you are.”

“Not sure I follow.”

“Well, you should. It's the best bloodline. The line of the Oracle and the line of Lucis. We're gonna need to start over somehow.”

Huh. Another few minutes of trudging and they were out of the treeline. Still no sign of Prompto. Shit. The sensible thing to do was to head back, call Cindy, and wait it out in Hammerhead until the Regalia was road-worthy again. Hope that Prompt had been sensible enough to make his way to the nearest outpost and hang tight.

“You know, there's no reason you have to--”

“You hear that?” Noct said.

Shit. He knew it was gigantoad weather. He'd never learn to love that roar. “Swords out and down to business.”

“Does it sound... louder than usual?”

“Fuck!” The trees bent around the gigantoads as they emerged. Way too many toads. They weren't herd animals! What in the name of freaky giant frogspawn was this? “Noct.” They'd have been fine with a half dozen. Maybe even a dozen. With a full party and a stash of enough potions. But just the two of them? In this shitty weather? Rain sheeting down and blocking their peripheral vision.

“Nut up,” Noct said, warping with his sword extended as the first wave of toads reared back. He cut off their tongues as they flicked them out. 

Which really pissed them off. Even without the extendable tongues, these things weighed a tonne. Way more than Noct did, and enough to crush Gladio too if they got right on top of him. Wasn't Noct just talking about the strongest bloodline? Hard to have a strong bloodline if the Lucis Caelum contingent got flattened by a frog.

“Noct!” Gladio dived into a shield strike, stunning the circle of toads around Noct. “Don't be an asshole. We ain't fighting forty of these things head-on.”

“You want them to find Prompto and Iggy?”

“Keep this up and they're gonna find our bodies.” He just managed to whirl out of the way of another toad spiking its tongue at him, as it hopped over the stunned ones. “Come on! Think about what they'll have to put on your tomb if you get licked to death.”

Noct warped, grabbed his arm, and warped them both again. Which still made him retch but, hey, at least he had an empty stomach. He made the mistake of looking back as he sagged to his knees. So that was what a gigantoad stampede looked like. He listed to the side, Noct not strong enough to keep him on his feet.

“Gladio?”

“'M fine.” Just woozy. He only needed a moment. He fell heavily, taking the brunt of the impact on his shoulder. Noct crouched over him as he tried to blink the spots out of his eyes. 

“Gladio! The hell?”

The hell was right. He tried to lift his head and it flopped back down. Noct looked back over his shoulder, then cracked a potion over him. The nausea subsided right until he tried to sit back up. The gigantoads were getting louder, the ground trembling underneath them.

You know what would really make their day right now? A magitek armour bounding its way toward them. He had to blink three times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Nope. That was an MA and it was heading right for them.

“Get outta here, Noct!”

He didn't. Yeah, why would he start listening to him now? Noct pulled out his sword.

The MA leapt over them and fired on the gigantoads. What the fuck? He had to be hallucinating. Or maybe he'd passed out. Or died. And the afterlife was a real disappointment. Whatever was happening, the MA was really going to town on those gigantoads. Like, this was an extinction event.

When the last one croaked – he was definitely out of it – the MA turned around. The hatch opened. To reveal Prompto with Iggy on his lap.

“Get in, losers,” he said.

###

Noct somehow squeezed into the hatch but Gladio couldn't fit. He was still woozy and struggling to get his legs under him, so Prompto scooped him up in the MA's arms like he was a gods damned nest-fallen bird and bridal carried him all the way back to the car. Which hadn't gotten any less crushed. What the fuck would a civilian do if they saw this whole scene? Him being carried by an MA. He was still drenched from the rain and the mud, shivering, trying to avoid his bare skin touching any part of the metal arms. 

Prompto laid him down gently in the back seat of the Regalia and popped the hatch open again. Noct warped down and pulled a blanket out of the armiger. He wrapped it around Gladio, tucking it tight around him. Gladio glared at him.

Noct laughed. “Dude. Your face.”

Prompto had climbed down from the MA with Ignis on his back. He laughed too. “You're like, the angriest sushi.” He summoned a towel and started to dry off Gladio's hair with it. Gladio struggled but all the strength had left his body since the last near-faint and he couldn't un-tuck the blanket from around him. Ignis peered over Prompto's shoulder, face tight with concern. “Whoa, big guy.” 

“What the fuck, Prompto?” Gladio sneezed and gave them all a glare that dared them to say anything about it. “I thought you were that weird twink with a hate-boner for Cor.”

Ignis gasped at the language. Noct smashed another potion over Gladio, but it didn't do anything. He summoned another two blankets and piled them up on top of him. It was too hot. He shifted again, trying to get them away. They were lead-heavy.

“You need to get rid of his wet clothes,” Ignis said. “Or the blankets won't help.”

“I think I can handle the sniffles, kid.”

“It's not a cold,” Noct said. “I mean, it might be a cold as well, but he nearly fainted. When we were fighting.”

“I'm _fine_.”

“The blood loss!” Ignis said. “He needed more rest. And nutrients. A sports drink might help?”

One appeared in Noct's hand. He shoved it against Gladio's lips. “Get that thing outta my face. I told you, I'm fine.”

“Yeah? Then knock it out of my hand.”

Hell of a thing to ask when they're the ones who'd swaddled him so tight he couldn't move. Noct uncapped the bottle and tilted it, so Gladio had to either drink or let it splash over his face. It tasted salty rather than sugary but once he started, he couldn't stop, sucking the drink down until the bottle deflated with the force of it.

“What else?” Noct asked Ignis.

Sure was great to be in the tender care of two idiots who needed instructions from a six-year-old. “We need to get outta here,” Gladio said. “In case you hadn't noticed, the wildlife ain't friendly.”

“Cindy time!” Prompto got out his phone and made the call. Gladio made another last-ditch effort to sit up but his head smacked right back down into the Regalia's backseat. Apparently he was stuck there until they got a tow.

###

Gladio must've fallen asleep because the next thing he knew he was waking up. In a strange room. It was tiny and dark, the only thing he could see ahead was an engine laid out in pieces on a tarp on a small desk in front of him. If this was Cindy's bedroom, Prompto was going to lose his mind. Wherever it was, he was dry, and in a fresh set of clothes, and he wasn't shivering anymore. He turned his head. Noct was sleeping by his bedside, slumped over in a wooden chair. Gladio had enough strength back to kick the chair leg and wake him up.

“Noct! What the hell?”

“The hell yourself!” Noct nudged the chair back out of range. “You shoulda told us you weren't okay.”

“I am okay!”

“You almost got us killed!”

Us? _Us_? “I told you to run!”

“You think I'd just leave you?”

“If it means you don't get your scrawny ass killed, that's exactly what I expect you to do.”

“Guess we're both lucky Prompto was there then!” 

The thing was when Noct was glaring, he didn't ever actually look very scary. He wasn't that much bigger than Iris and baby-faced enough that he could menace someone about as well as the current Ignis. If Gladio hadn't seen him fight, he'd have a hard time seeing Noct as any kind of threat to anything. So the whole narrow-eyed, jutted out jaw thing he was doing right now didn't make him look anything but cute. And usually that would just piss Gladio off all the more cause Lucis' last hope was a fucking kid who couldn't prioritise his life even when he was exactly that, Lucis' last hope. But he couldn't muster the energy for it.

“He explain what happened?”

Noct slumped down in his chair, still pouting.“Ignis did. Ten times now.” But Noct didn't seem inclined to explain once. 

“Guess I'll get the story straight from the chocobo's beak.”

“Whoa! Hey!” Noct stood up, hands outstretched like he was actually considering trying to pin Gladio back down on the bed. “The doctor said you can walk around but you have to get up slowly. And you can only go as far as the diner. And you need to have a hearty meal when you get there. Here.” Noct offered him his shoulder to lean on, like that wouldn't have sent them both straight over onto the floor.

“I can handle a few steps.” Still, Gladio planted his feet carefully, head almost touching his chest as he sat up, riding out another dizzy spell. He managed to stand and then to walk forward by taking slow, careful steps.

“Gladio--”

“I'm fine!”

He was, now he'd gotten on his feet. Maybe he felt a bit run-down but he wasn't an invalid and he didn't need a shrimp trying to help him walk. By the time he'd reached the diner, he felt like he'd gone ten rounds with Cor, but he did a pretty good job of casually sliding into the booth Ignis and Prompto were sharing. Noct didn't join them, he went straight to Takka.

“Hey!” Prompto said. “Have some fries!” He shoved the basket in front of Gladio. Then he shoved a soda in front of him.

Gladio was pretty sure fries and a half-drunk soda with Prompto's drool on it didn't constitute a hearty meal but he was hungry enough to take a handful of the fries anyway. “What the hell happened back there?”

Prompto's gaze darted to Noct, still talking with Takka. “Nothing much.”

“There was a garula stampede!” Ignis said. 

Again, Prompto's gaze flicked to Noct. “It was just, you know, instinct. Nothing special. I saw them coming and grabbed Iggy and ran.”

“Nothing special, huh?”

“Yep! You guys woulda done the same. You guys do way more awesome stuff all the time.”

“Pretty sure neither of us can pilot Magitek Armour. And that we almost got our asses handed to us by a bunch of gigantoads.”

Prompto sunk down into his seat, until Gladio could only see his head and shoulders. His face got almost as red as when he talked to Cindy. “Only cause of the blood loss thing. You usually kick toad butt.”

“That right, Iggy? It was no big deal?”

“It was a very big deal!” Prompto cringed while Iggy was talking, one eye on Noct. Ignis stood on the booth's seat like he was his adult self addressing journalists in a pulpit. “He was faster than the garulas, and the garulas were being chased by gigantoads, and we had to sneak around so they didn't see us. Then we hid in one of those big metal carriers until the gigantoads passed us. And then Prompto was worried about the gigantoads finding you. And then we found a broken magitek armour and Prompto fixed it. And we got in. And then he saved you and prince Noctis. And he doesn't have any magic at all! Not even in a flask.”

“Hey, Noct's magic is way better than a Magitek Armour,” Prompto said. “Magitek comes from the empire and they're super mean.”

“Prompto's a hero,” Ignis said. He leaned over the table, lowering his voice. “Prince Noctis is upset because he isn't one.”

Great. So they were back on this bullshit. Just what Gladio needed while his head was throbbing. They all fell silent again when Noct returned. He placed a huge plate of steak and veg down on the table in front of Gladio. “Eat,” he said. “You need iron and... other stuff. Vegetable stuff.”

“How'd you get Takka to part with a steak?” The last thing he knew they were flat broke after the caravan and the car tow couldn't have helped.

“Less questions, more eating.”

He did eat but only cause he was hungry and he could see the logic in getting his strength back quickly. Noct threw himself down into the booth, arms crossed, occasionally venturing one out to steal more fries. Gladio was halfway through his steak when it dawned on him that he was the only one eating steak, and the three of them were sharing a kinda sad basket of fries.

“You three eaten?”

“I said less questions,” Noct said.

“Prompto. When was the last time you three ate?”

Prompto's ears turned pink. “We're eating right now, buddy.”

“Ignis.”

Ignis gave him a poker face. Fucking terrifying that he'd already mastered that. “That's irrelevant, Gladiolus. You need to finish your meal or you won't be able to do your duties properly.”

Noct made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a muffled laugh. Fine. If these jackasses wanted to watch him eat a huge meal while they each had five fries each, that'd serve them right. Noct especially since if he'd turned off the ignition they wouldn't be in this sorry state to begin with. When he'd picked every last scrap from the plate, he stared at it, wondering how much of a tantrum Ignis would throw if he licked it clean.

“Still hungry?” Prompto asked.

“No.”

“Kay. So you won't want dessert then? More for us.”

“You gonna pull dessert out your ass? Cause then I'm definitely not hungry.”

“Gladiolus!” Ignis said. “You're being very ungrateful. And crude.”

“Well, guess what, kid? I'm a grown-up. I can be as crude and ungrateful as I want.”

Noct kicked him under the table. “Don't take it personally, Ignis. You ever seen a couerl with a thorn in its paw? That's Gladio right now. We've got dessert because we've got rice and we've got milk. Prompto says he can make something with it.”

“It's called rice pudding and it's super tasty. Should be done any minute now. Takka let me use the kitchen. ”

“Why?” This was the guy who only gave them a tiny discount after they'd risked their necks for some damned beans. “What'd you give him?”

Prompto mumbled something. “But it was totally worth it!”

He was gonna flip the table, even if it was bolted to the floor. “What was totally worth it?”

“Seventy gigantoad steaks,” Noct said. “We ended up with a lot of them, you know?”

“For one cooked meal and using the kitchen? You coulda cooked 'em yourselves at camp!”

“And how were we gonna get you to camp?”

This was why these two chuckle-fucks were taking advice from a six-year-old. “You coulda left me here, went to camp, and came back. And what the hell is that deal? Gods, didn't Iggy teach you anything about negotiation?”

Shit. It was said. It couldn't be unsaid. And Ignis burst into tears. “So it's my fault?”

“No!” Prompto said quickly. “No, you haven't done anything.” He tried to pull Ignis into a hug but Ignis shuffled away from him, tucking himself into the corner of the booth.

“What do you mean, kid? What's your fault?”

Ignis sniffed loudly. “That Insomnia doesn't have a proper king.”


	5. Chapter 5

All it took to sort Takka's bad deal out was for Gladio to lean meaningfully on the counter. Suddenly Takka was keen to prove it was all a big misunderstanding, and he was just storing some of their steaks in his freezer, and of course he'd be happy to give them all another meal on the house. Gladio hated pulling shit like that. It was acting like the thug people assumed he was because he was big and loud. But he wasn't in the mood for delicacy, and neither was anyone else.

Prompto was trying to console an inconsolable Ignis. But Gladio could see his heart wasn't really in it. They were all tired and drained, and Noct had stormed into the bathroom and hadn't come out. Not like any of them had expected to suddenly be co-parenting a kid.

Deal with Noct? Or deal with Ignis?

Gladio sighed and forced himself up off the counter, where he was still leaning. Then forced one foot in front of the other, thinking about the placement of each foot, so another dizzy spell didn't send him over. Somehow Prompto got in front of him, Iggy resting on his hip and still bawling.

“Gladio, dude,” he said. “You've gotta sit down.”

“'M fine.”

He shushed Ignis, bouncing him on his hip. He used the other hand to stall Gladio, hand braced on his chest when he tried to take another step. “Big guy, you gotta stop. Rest. Eat. Noct can wait. Your blood's not gonna.”

There were blue-white spots in front of Gladio's vision and the sound of Ignis' squawking was exploding in his eardrums. He still tried to take another step.

“Whoa, buddy. You gotta stop.”

“Make me!” Gladio tried to shove Prompto aside but he just side-stepped, stepped neatly back in front of him, and used the same hand he'd steadied Gladio with to push him back. Gladio could snap him like a twig. Usually. But Gladio was trembling again, all the strength had left his body. Prompto pushed him back to the stool next to the counter.

“Noct--”

“Noct needs a time out. You need to eat.”

Sheepishly, Takka placed another steak and salad beside him. Prompto spun his stool until he was facing it. The smell of it made Gladio's stomach roar, then nausea rolled through him, then right back to his stomach roaring again. He stabbed the steak with his fork and shoved the entire thing into his mouth. Prompto hovered over him, not moving until he'd finished every last bite. Then he ducked into the kitchen and returned with a bowl of that rice pudding stuff.

It wasn't as good as Ignis' desserts but it was still good. Gladio had stopped trembling by the time he'd poured the whole bowl down his throat.

“Still hungry?” Prompto asked.

“I'm fine-- I'm tired.”

Shouting at Prompto was like shouting at an adolescent labrador. He never reacted. Not like Noct who'd stew about one comment for days, and pout, and sulk. There was no point. So Gladio let himself to be walked to the bedroom he'd woken up in. Even let himself be tucked in.

“Night, buddy.” Prompto clicked off the lights.

Ignis didn't stop bawling the entire time.

###

It was dark when Gladio woke again. He'd slept like a brick. There was a warm weight huddled up against his side. A very small warm weight. Ignis must've cried himself to sleep, if the damp spot on Gladio's shirt was anything to go by. There was no sign of Prompto or Noct. 

If Noct was still in that gods-damned bathroom, Gladio was gonna beat the shit out of him.

He shuffled along the bed, ready to do just that. But the movement disturbed Ignis. Who sniffled awake and went right back to bawling. What the fuck? Gladio thought Prompto had handled this. He shuffled back over to Ignis.

“Kid,” Gladio said, trying to keep his cool as each high-pitched cry stabbed into his skull. “Where's Prompto? Where's Noct?”

Ignis sniffled himself into silence and then swallowed a couple of times. That was worse than the crying. Way worse. His lip still wobbled but he looked like he'd suck his tears back into his tear ducts if he could. “Asleep, I think.”

“Hey.” Gladio shuffled back across the bed until he was within arm's reach of Ignis. “You been upset this whole time?”

“I know about Insomnia.”

Shit. Fuck. Fuck and shit and fuck. “We didn't know how to tell you.”

Ignis narrowed his eyes at him. “You didn't want to.”

“Yeah. That too. What gave it away?”

“A newspaper. It said “Insomnia Falls” and... Why didn't Noct stop it? Why didn't Regis?”

“Kid.” Gladio was so not the person to deal with this but he was the only one that was there. “Sometimes adults, even kings, can't stop the worst from happening. The most kingly king to have ever sat their ass on a throne couldn't have stopped it. Regis did everything that he could, even if that only meant saving us.”

Sometimes Ignis looked at him so knowingly it was like he'd just been shrunk, his gazes concentrated into higher intensity. “Clarus?” he said, faintly.

Gladio had to swallow three times before he could talk. He'd built a dam around his grief and he couldn't let the tiniest fissure appear in it. “Gone.” For a moment he considered making a run for it, in case Ignis asked about his own parents or his uncle. But Ignis just scrunched up his fists and his eyes, and blinked away any trace of the grief that had been there before. And that was a whole other heap of terrifying. “Iggy. Ignis. You've gotta-- You don't have to pretend around us. This ain't the Citadel. Hell, the Citadel's gone.”

“You either.”

“Me? What the--?” Gladio forcibly lowered his voice. This might be Ignis but it was still a kid. “What do you mean, me either?”

“You can be scared too.”

“I ain't scared of anything.”

Ignis' lip wobbled dangerously for a second, then the distress vanished as soon as it had come over him. “Liar. You're all liars! You all keep lying to me!”

Fuck. Gladio's head still throbbed. Where was Prompto? De-escalation wasn't Gladio's thing. He knew how to knock people's heads together and that had never been a sound tactic for any version of Ignis. Why the hell had those two chuckle-fucks left him to deal with this? “Fine! I'm fu-- I'm petrified that you're never gonna grow up again! That we're gonna have to leave you somewhere and we're already floundering as it is. Hard enough having to deal with one foetal king without having a literal kid on our hands. You want your Noct, your home, well I want _my_ Ignis. The one who knows not to poke at this stuff!”

That outburst only tired him out again but he kept himself upright by sheer willpower. What the hell was he doing? Screaming at a kid.

“The you I know is too emotional too,” Ignis said, little face twisted. “You always shout at people! You'll never be the shield that your father was!”

It hit him like an iron giant. Took the last of his energy too. He flopped back onto the bed. Tried to breathe through it. He'd said hurtful shit. Ignis had said hurtful shit. They were even. Not that getting even mattered. He was supposed to be the adult here.

And Ignis was right. He wasn't Clarus. Clarus never got himself so injured he couldn't do his damned job. Clarus died defending his king.

A scrim of tears blurred Gladio's vision and he blinked them away.

“Gladio?” Ignis said, meekly. They might have been silent for a while before that. It was hard to keep track of time with the wooziness that kept coming and going.

“Yeah?”

“I didn't mean that. I'm sorry.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Ignis crawled up to the head of the bed and curled into Gladio's chest. “I want to go home.”

Gladio knew the feeling but he didn't know what to say. So he patted Ignis' back instead. “You want me to read something?”

Ignis nodded against his chest. Gladio pulled a book of ancient Solheim fairytales from the armiger. Not kid's stuff, but Ignis hadn't read kid stuff since he was learning the alphabet. He flicked the lamp on and started to read.

###

A noise woke Gladio for the second time. It turned out to just be Prompto trying to be quiet. It was daylight again. Usually, Gladio would be pissed at himself for sleeping an entire day away but he already felt less dizzy. If still ravenous.

“Where the hell have you been?” Gladio whispered. Ignis was still asleep and he sure as shit wasn't in the mood to deal with another crying jag.

“Don't freak out,” Prompto whispered back. “I had to go get Noct.”

“You--!”

Prompto shushed him, frantically waved his arms, and pointed at Ignis. “I said not to freak. It's not like he was fighting daemons or anything. Just fishing.”

Fishing! Gladio extricated himself from Ignis as carefully as he could and slid a pillow between his arms when he started to fuss. “Look after the kid.” He hurried out before Prompto could argue. And wished he hadn't. Hurrying made him dizzy again.

“Wait!”

Prompto tapped him on the back and shoved a bottle of water into his hands. Then a protein bar. “You can't tear around like usual, big guy. Gotta keep hydrated. Noct's in the diner. Think you've got Takka scared enough to cook some of the fish Noct caught?”

Gladio considered tossing the protein bar back in Prompto's face but his stomach growled. He swallowed the entire thing without chewing and gulped down half the water. Why the fuck was he so tapped out? He'd barely been moving. Well, if Takka wasn't scared enough from yesterday, he'd just have to remind him how pissed he was. “Iggy knows about Insomnia.”

“Yeah.” Prompto looked as tired as Gladio felt for a moment. “It was a whole thing. But Noct was gone and I figured--”

“You'd dump Iggy on me?”

“No! Yes! Look, I didn't expect to be babysitting either! What I figured was, he'd be safe here, Noct might not be. I dunno why you two think I'm better at this stuff than you are. Cause I'm not. I'm like ten years too young for this kinda responsibility, man! Maybe twenty. I signed up for shooting daemons and drawing a dick on Noct's face at the stag party. Not--” Prompto flailed his hands. “Not whatever this is. Iggy's the one with the good dad habits. Not me!”

Maybe Gladio would just curl up on the tarmac and go to sleep. It's not like any of them had anyone to learn 'good dad habits' from. Clarus was-- Fine. But it wasn't like they'd been close. Same with Noct and Regis. There was too much other stuff going on all the time. They both saw more Citadel staff than their own parents. Hell, Ignis had done a hell of a lot more of the dad stuff for Noct than Regis ever did. Ignis' parents... Gladio didn't know. He never mentioned them.

“I gotta have a word with Noct.”

“Go easy on him, big guy. It's been rough.”

###

Fishing? Fucking fishing. Fishing! It echoed in Gladio's head the whole dizzying walk to the diner and fuck his feet for not cooperating. Noct was sitting at the counter, shoving whole handfuls of fries into his mouth.

“If Iggy saw you eating like that--”

“Iggy isn't here,” Noct said, as bitterly as he could through a mouthful of fries.

Gladio slid the fries over to his part of the counter and dug in. “What the hell were you thinking, running off fishing?”

“Can we not? I already heard it all from Prompto.”

Yeah, right. If Noct expected him to believe Prompto gave him the earful he sorely deserved, he had another thing coming. He slapped Noct's hand away when he tried to go in for more fries. They were his now. Serve him right for acting like a damned kid. “Think you can just run away whenever tiny Iggy hurts your fee-fees?”

“Fee-fees? Are you joking right now? This is your fault!”

Gladio might actually fall off his chair. This blood loss thing was bullshit. “Mine?”

“Yeah, yours! Ignis thinks I'm not cut out to be king. Where do you think he got that impression from?”

“I ain't said a thing about your kingliness to this Iggy!”

“You said a lot about it when he was this age for real!”

If Gladio didn't already have a headache, he'd for sure have one now. “This isn't me stuff. This is kid stuff. How powerful Regis musta seemed to him back then. Hell, we grew up thinking Insomnia was the whole world and we were gonna protect it just like he did. We didn't know about the mess outside the wall until later. You don't live up to that, sure. But neither did he, not in real life.”

“Great! So I am a failure but at least my dad was a failure too?”

“No! Look, Iggy's got a sharp tongue. Always has had, he just never used it on you.”

“Like hell he didn't. You just think Iggy's always soft on me because he didn't put me through the Gladio School of Tough Love or whatever it is you think you're doing.”

“I'm _trying_ to go easy on you--”

“Yeah, well. You suck at it. You're better at tough love than Prompto, though. He had no idea what he was doing.”

When Ignis was back to normal Gladio was gonna buy him a drink for not managing to throttle Noct so far. “He told me I wasn't ever gonna be as good a Shield as Clarus, you know.”

“Seriously? What's he gonna do next? Tell Prompto his hair's stupid?”

“That's just the truth. Why the hell'd you run off? Way to prove you're a responsible heir.”

“Why not? You and Iggy were both safe here, and we can't go anywhere else till you're better.”

“Pull your head outta your ass, Noct! The nearest fishing spot to here's right next to an Imperial checkpoint. And even if it weren't, you never know what's hunting out there. Getting yourself killed isn't gonna prove a damn thing.”

“I'm not trying to prove anything.”

“Then what the hell are you doing?”

“Dunno.” Takka interrupted them by handing Noct a milkshake, which he hunched over, guarding it from Gladio. He hollowed out his cheeks, draining half of it in one gulp, glaring at the wall behind the counter. The world's most emo milkshake-drinker.

“Guess.”

“I _guess_ there was no point being here.”

“Uh-huh. And why's that?”

“Ignis thinks I suck.”

“So you _were_ running away! From a six-year-old. Gods, you're pathetic.” He snatched Noct's milkshake too. He'd have to guard better than that. He tipped it down his throat, barely even tasting it. Then burped loudly. “Nut up, Princess. This Iggy hasn't had over a decade to dedicate to your sensibilities. You're just gonna have to put up with it until we get the right one back.”

He tossed the empty plastic cup back at Noct, which he swatted back at him. Gladio sent it right back. It went back and forth with increasing force until Noct vanished it into the armiger.

Noct jerked to his feet, his stool screeching on the tiles. “Gods, you're such a dick!” He stormed off.

“Where you going, Princess?” Gladio called after him. “Fishing again?”

###

Gladio had been in the diner for a while, hoovering up whatever food Takka gave him, when Prompto dragged Noct back inside.

“Where's Ignis?” Gladio said, stepping off his stool so quickly he nearly face-planted onto the floor.

“I called in reinforcements,” Prompto said. “Cid's gonna look after him.”

“Cid?”

“He raised Cindy.” Prompto looked into the middle distance. “Raised her real good.”

Noct elbowed Prompto back to reality. “We need money. I checked the bounties before you started your bullshit and there's one for flexitusks. Me and Prompto can handle that.”

“Like hell are you two going on a hunt alone.”

“What are you gonna do? Faint at them?”

“I'm fine!”

Prompto and Noct did their best impression of a synchronised eye-rolling team. “What part of rest up are you not getting?” Noct said. “Anyway, we need you here so Ignis isn't just with a total stranger.”

“I'm not getting sidelined by you two!”

Prompto groaned. “Gladio, buddy. You gotta listen, buddy. You got majorly hurt, buddy. Right, buddy?”

“I can handle it!” Prompto couldn't buddy him into submission. “I've toughed out stuff way worse than this.”

Noct dragged his hand down his face. “You haven't. Stop being a meathead for five seconds and listen. We have no potions. No money. If you get taken down while you're injured, I can't get you back up. So you're gonna stay here and get better.”

“I'm--”

“Are you my shield or are you some one hundred and twenty kilo asshole who's gonna get all three of us killed when we have to try and drag you back here?”

Gods, he hated it when Noct got like this. Well, not really. He hated it that Noct finally got hit with the clue stick, only to use it against him. “Fine. But you'd better be ready to haul ass at the first sign you're in over your heads.”

“Sure thing!” Prompto gave him a friendly ass-smack. “And hey! Noct caught a lot of fish. Like, a whole lot. You could see if Takka wants to buy some?”

“I see what you're doing.” Trying to make him feel better about being benched.

“Are you gonna make us some gil or not?” Noct said.

“I didn't say I wasn't gonna do it! You're burning daylight. Get going!” Gladio slid back onto the stool, ready to sell some fucking fish.

Prompto lingered for a couple of seconds but the bell on the door told him Noct had already left. “Uh... see ya,” Prompto said, and ran after him.


	6. Chapter 6

The nausea wasn't just from the blood loss this time but Gladio ignored that too. Those two would be fine without him. It was just some sabretooths like they'd said. They'd killed dozens of them by now. Noct might be a pain in the ass and Prompto might be a goofball, but they could fight. And he'd gotten a pretty good deal on the fish. With that and the hunt, they'd be able to get going. Lestallum would be their best bet to wait this out. And he could drop in on Iris while they were there.

Yeah. It was all good.

He trudged into Cid's workshop, where he and Ignis were sitting on folding chairs. Ignis had a book of mechanical engineering open in his lap. That was usually more Prompto's thing but he doubted Cid had a huge selection of the intricate political thrillers Ignis read for fun.

“Sit down before you keel over,” Cid said. “If you can find a chair that'll hold ya.”

Definitely not one of the folding things they were sitting on. He pulled his Coleman's camping chair out of the armiger and gritted his teeth when that made his stomach slosh around and his vision spin out. He dropped it on the floor and sank heavily into it.

“You good, Iggy?” he asked.

“I'm fine, thank you, Gladiolus.”

Which was Ignis' stock response. But he guessed he wasn't gonna get more out of him in front of Cid. Cid, who was staring at him with his eyes narrowed.

“Sitting ain't gonna cut it. You look like you could use a few more hours in bed. Cindy! Watch the ankle-biter. I'm gonna take the other kid in the back so he can get some shut-eye.”

“I don't need to--” The words evaporated under Cid's gimlet stare, along with the objection that he wasn't a kid. He was a gods-damned six foot five adult man.

Getting out of the chair was harder than getting into it. He wished he'd never bothered if they were just gonna get him right back up. Ignis and Cid both hovered around him too, as if even the two of them together would be able to catch him if he fell. He lumbered to his feet and unsteadily followed Cid into the back room he'd been sleeping in.

“This your bed?” Gladio asked, lowering himself onto it with another burst of effort.

“Yup.”

“You don't need to give up your bed! The camper's fine. I don't--”

“If I hear you telling anybody you don't need nothing one more time, I'm gonna take you over my knee and tan your hide.”

Gladio spluttered cause what the hell could he possibly say to that?

“Don't like that, huh? Well, if you're gonna act like a kid, I'm gonna treat you like one. You boys have been yelling and cussing up and down Hammerhead since the prince and the blond dragged you here by the skin of their teeth, and none of it's getting you anywhere. And do you wanna tell me why that little boy out there thinks he caused the mother-loving fall of Insomnia?”

“I don't know! Seriously. I've got no idea why he thinks that. We sure as hell didn't tell him that it's his fault.”

Cid sighed and pulled up a chair. “You know, Cindy was the same age when I took her in after my boy got killed. At the start she'd barely go a night without crying herself to sleep and all I wanted to do was curl up on the floor with her and do the same. I know it ain't easy shoving your own stuff aside to deal with someone else's.”

Yeah, tell him about it. He had a newfound appreciation for Ignis and how he'd managed not to end the royal bloodline by murdering the shit out of Noct.

“Me and Regis and your dad, we weren't close at the end. But that didn't mean I stopped caring about 'em.”

Gladio swallowed three times around the sudden lump in his throat. “What's your point?”

“You're all dealing with that and I sure as hell understand. You still need to step up if you care about that boy out there cause you're the one claiming to be an adult. Step one is pulling those covers over your shoulders and resting up.”

###

It smarted, knowing Cid was right. And also that Gladio had slept for at least a day while the person he was meant to be shielding went off and did a hunt on his own. He'd woken only for a couple of seconds at a time to shove protein drinks or water down his gullet, but he felt better for it. He could stand without feeling shaky and he was sure-footed when he walked across to the diner.

They'd all been treating Ignis like he was just a smaller version of his adult self (except Prompto; the poor guy had tried to step up). Which was bullshit. Ignis spent so much time helping them out and when they needed him, they got wrapped up in their own shit? No wonder Prompto was floundering. He and Noct had been assholes.

He was going to put this right, starting right now.

They'd congregated in the diner again. Prompto was teaching Ignis some kinda game that involved blowing balls of paper across one of the tables through a straw. Noct was red-faced, having some kind of heated discussion with Takka.

“Hey,” Gladio said, looming behind Noct. “What's going on here?”

“Your friend here's trying to give me toad steaks that have been sitting for a couple of days,” Takka said. “That wasn't the deal.”

“They haven't been sitting! Tell him, Gladio.”

“They're fresh.” Gladio smooshed Noct's face in his hand and presented it to Takka. “You think this guy's got the chops to try and rip you off? Cause I remember the deal that he agreed to and I ain't gonna forget it.” Noct struggled out of his grip and glared at him. “Look.” Gladio grabbed a bottle of ketchup from the counter and vanished it into the armiger. It wasn't like it was a secret anymore. Before Takka could explode about petty theft, he brought it back out and handed it to Takka so he could feel how it was slightly chilled. “Stuff goes into the armiger and it goes into some kinda stasis. Those steaks are as fresh as the moment this idiot sliced them off that toad's back.” Gladio clenched his fists so the muscles in his arms flexed and the tendons stood out. “Or are you gonna call me a liar too?”

Yeah, he thought not. Takka spluttered out an apology and handed over the gil.

“I had it handled,” Noct said sullenly, once Takka had headed out back.

“You--!” Gladio clamped his mouth shut. “Maybe. But we don't wanna waste time. We need money to help Iggy, right? Sooner the better.”

Noct blinked, mouth parted in surprise. Then he grinned that goofy smile of his. “I guess. You're looking better. Did you finally listen and get some rest?”

“Yeah. I'm good to go. For real this time.”

“No way. It's only been a couple of days. The doctor said at least a week.”

“That's--!” Gladio gritted his teeth until he was sure he could stop himself yelling in Noct's face. “Fine. We got enough for the car repairs yet?”

“We've got enough to make it rain!”

He wasn't gonna deck his king. He wasn't going to deck his king. He wasn't going to deck his king. “Is that enough for the car?”

“Sure!” The grin faded from Noct's face. “But that's it. We still need potions and stuff. It's gonna mean another hunt.”

Great. Another hunt he couldn't be part of. “There anything left here you two can handle on your own?”

“To get enough...” Noct scrunched up his face. Gladio recognised this as his mental arithmetic grimace. He hated maths but Ignis had drilled the lessons into him enough times to make him good at it. “We can handle the next couple easy but the one after that's at night. We can handle the target but if an iron giant shows up? Not so much.”

“Then you can wait it out till I'm one hundred percent.” He slung an arm around Noct's shoulders and steered him towards the table where Prompto was playing with Ignis. “And if we even suspect there's an iron giant around, we're gonna run.”

“Hey!” Prompto said. “Iggy's kicking my butt.”

There were a lot of spit-balls in Prompto's lap. The idea of adult Ignis even being on the same continent as a spit ball was ludicrous, so he probably had a lot more motivation not to let them touch him. “This game challenging enough for ya, Iggy?” Gladio asked, sliding in beside him while Noct took the seat next to Prompto.

“It helps my hand-eye coordination,” Ignis said.

“No way!” Prompto said. “This is supposed to be fun. Not learning.”

Ignis frowned. “Why?”

The stricken looks on Prompto's and Noct's faces made him scowl harder. His bottom lip started to stick out dangerously.

“Hey, hey,” Noct said. “Remember when we used to sneak onto the Citadel roof to look at the stars? That was fun, right?”

Ignis started to nod, then glanced sideways at Gladio. What? What the hell was that about? “Yes but that was allowed because it was fun for Noct-- for you too.”

Great. Now Noct also looked like he was about to cry. And Prompto was sliding down into his seat like he was going to disappear under the table. Right. Think. They knew Ignis. For fuck's sake, Gladio had known him almost his entire life. They knew what he liked to do for fun. He didn't like cooking – that was a job skill. But he was a foodie. That was one thing. Come on. There was other stuff not inextricably linked to his taking care of Noct. Ebony? Not like they could give him one at this age and nope, that was just more food stuff. 

“I know!” Gladio said it so loudly that probably even Takka jumped in the back room. But he was too high on his own genius to acknowledge it. He pulled a pack of cards from the armiger and started dealing them four ways. “We're gonna play some poker and I'm gonna kick all your aaaa-- butts.”

He did not kick their butts. Prompto and Noct cheating as much as they could get away with was a given but Gladio knew all their tells. What he didn't account for was Ignis picking it up right away, then destroying them.

Prompto covered his face and groaned after his sixth consecutive loss. Noct was staring at the cards like they'd developed a consciousness of their own and were all calling him a dick. Gladio wouldn't have put it past Ignis to teach him card-counting to prepare him for political manoeuvring or whatever.

But it worked. Ignis was smiling. “Why don't we make this more interesting?” he asked, which was in its own way terrifying. A prepubescent card shark.

“We ain't got any gil,” Gladio said. “What do you want, kid?”

The smile vanished. Now Ignis was faced with the prospect of admitting he actually wanted something for himself, he was a lot less confident. Instead of answering, he searched their faces. Maybe the poker was good practise because Noct's and Prompto's immediately shuttered. Good. Gladio would have to buy them both a drink later.

“Ah-ah. It's not a trick question,” Gladio said. “What do you want if you win?”

After a couple of more minutes hesitation and a few more glances at them to make sure this wasn't a gotcha, Ignis cast his gaze to his lap and mumbled: “A car.”

“You got your driving license?” Gladio asked. Which wasn't too much of a joke. Ignis had started driving Noct to school when he was thirteen.

“Not a real one, Gladio,” Ignis said with withering scorn.

“Play a round without me,” Noct said. “I got this!”

They did and, unsurprisingly, Ignis won. Prompto didn't even attempt to cheat this time. It gave Noct enough time to get back from wherever he'd been. “Did you beat these two losers?” he asked, holding one arm behind his back with a grin that looked like it'd spread right off either side of his face.

“It was easy!”

Noct laughed. “Then I guess you earned this.” He placed a toy car in front of Ignis. It was the Regalia of toy cars. It had everything a real car had in miniature: a horn that actually beeped, a tool set in the trunk, an engine that actually revved when you turned the tiny key, it even drove itself a couple of inches.

Ignis stared at it in such open wonder that Gladio couldn't even be mad at Noct for wasting what little money they had. “It's mine?” he said.

“You won it fair and square,” Gladio said.

Noct looked almost as happy as Ignis. “I had one exactly like that when I was a kid,” he said. “Iggy kept wanting me to play with it way after I got bored of it. I tried to give him it but... you know.”

Gladio remembered Ignis' childhood bedroom which was full of books but never any toys. No one would have stopped him having them, no one wanted that for him, but he stopped himself, didn't he? And he remembered his own bedroom. His toy swords. His toy shields. Playing with Iris' dolls when she asked him to but rarely anything else. He musta been staring at the table for too long without seeing anything else because Noct's concerned _Gladio?_ reached him from a mile away.

“Hey Iggy,” Prompto said, lifting Ignis and the car he was clutching tightly onto his shoulder. “Let's take it out on the road, huh? Leave these two to clean up the cards.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blanket thank you for the comments on the last chapter. I'm sorry for not getting a chance to reply to individual comments. I'm exhausted and it was either reply to those or finish up a chapter, so I chose to finish the chapter. orz

“You... okay?” Noct asked.

“Huh?” Gladio had to drag his gaze away from the table and back to Noct. “Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Where'd you get the car?”

“Cindy but hey--” Noct slid into the booth beside him, blocking him in there unless he wanted to crawl under the table and out the other side. Which he considered doing when Noct pursed his lips together, looking him dead in the eye. “When we were kids...”

“What about it?”

“Iggy played with me. Apparently only cause he thought he was 'allowed' to because I was there and that's a whole... that's a lot but you didn't even do that. So what were you doing?”

“Doesn't matter.”

“It matters to me.”

“Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it? It's done! It's fine.”

“If you keep telling me you're fine, I swear I'm gonna--”

“What? Take me over your knee?”

Noct blushed brilliantly. “What? No! I-- Damn it, Gladio. Will you shut up for five seconds?”

“Thought you wanted to talk?”

“I want you to _listen_.” Sometimes Gladio was sure he could flatten Noct with one hand, sometimes he was filled with arcane power that made even daemons quake, and sometimes he was just... The way he ought to be. Serious and regal. The foundation they could build a whole king around. “I'll make it up to you, okay? I'll make it up to you both. You should never have had to-- to bend your whole lives around me. I don't see you as just my shield. I've never seen you as that. When all this is over I'll make it better. I promise. I'll make it so no one's born thinking a prince is more important than them. And you and Ignis... You can both be whatever you want. Do whatever you need to do. Go wherever you want to go.”

Gladio pulled him into a one-armed hug and dragged his knuckles through his stupid, spiky hair. “I ain't going anywhere, dumbass.”

###

It looked like Prompto was more keen to play in the dirt than Ignis was. They were sitting in the space between Takka's diner and the garage, Prompto sitting cross-legged and Ignis in a crouch that put as little of his body in contact with the ground as possible. Prompto was watching, bemused, as Ignis took out one of the little figures from the car and had it check the oil, then the tires, then mime filling up the gas.

“Hey,” Noct said. He pulled a blanket from the armiger. “Here you go, Iggy.”

Ignis spread it out on the ground. He examined the new oil stains on Prompto's trousers. “That won't come out,” he said. “But you can join me on the blanket.”

“I'm good here.”

Ignis nodded and opened the trunk of the toy car, then checked the tiny spare tire inside. 

“You okay to play on your own for sec?” Prompto asked.

Ignis nodded again, entirely absorbed by playing with the car. Prompto hopped to his feet and leaned into Gladio and Noct.

“Is that normal?” Prompto asked. “Like, is that how he plays? Cause it kinda still seems like this is him trying to prove he's a responsible adult and, you know, we're the responsible adults. Kinda.”

“I think it's normal,” Noct said. “When we played house he used to start by checking the building was up to code. I think it's just he knows way more than most kids his age about this stuff. He seems happy, right? Gladio?”

“Yeah?” But what if he was just pretending? Because they'd given him a gift and good kids were meant to be grateful for their gifts, right? Fuck. This whole thing was gonna drive them insane if they let it. They'd end up paralysed, not even able to speak to the kid in case they did something else to convince him he had to be adult Ignis 2.0. “Don't overthink it. He likes the car. You did good. Come on.”

Gladio parked himself down on the blanket with Ignis. The other two joined him after a beat. Ignis was driving the car in circles in front of him now. He kept an iron grip on its roof and looked up at Gladio. “Why can't you drive?” he asked.

The other two weren't covering up their giggles as well as they thought they were.

“Cause I crashed,” Gladio said. “Three times. Ruined my dad's car on the last one. And a font.”

Ignis pulled the car into his chest like he was afraid Gladio might crash that too. His eyes were comically wide behind his too-big glasses. “And you're still allowed to be Prince Noctis' shield?”

“Course I am. You don't have to be perfect to serve Prince Noctis.” Especially since Prince Noctis' shoulders were shaking with how hard he was trying not to laugh. “He's sure not.”

“Hey!” Noct said. “Why the friendly fire? Iggy, Gladio doesn't need to drive. He's already a tank. Next time the Regalia breaks down, we'll just climb on his back and point him in the right direction, huh?”

“Dibs on his shoulders!” Prompto said. “Always wanted to see the world from up there.”

But Ignis apparently wasn't ready to let this go just yet. “Why didn't you keep trying after you failed, Gladiolus?” he demanded. “What if Prince Noctis is incapacitated and you need to drive him somewhere safe?”

“Prompto can drive.” Ignis could too.

“What if he's also incapacitated?”

“Hey,” Prompto said. “That's a real downer. You really wanna imagine we're all knocked out somewhere?”

“It isn't about what I want,” Ignis said. “It's about being prepared.”

Astrals almighty. “Kid, in that scenario we're boned whether I can drive a getaway car or not. I don't need to learn how to drive a car cause I spent my whole life learning how to make sure Noct doesn't get 'incapacitated'. There's no scenario in the world where I let Noct get hurt without going down myself. All right?”

“You can't control that.”

“You see a scratch on Noct? On any of you? No, you don't. Cause if anything tries to hurt any one of you, I'm gonna be in its way.”

“That's nonsense! Pure idealism!”

“Enough!” Noct said. “This is bad enough when you two are both grown-ups. Gladio doesn't need to drive so he can protect me, you didn't need to-- Everything doesn't have to be about me all the time. I'm not more important than either of you – than anyone – and I need you to... I need you to stop it. Stop acting like you need to give me everything because you don't.”

Nice sentiment but Gladio was kind of born and raised to give him everything. But it was Ignis who objected.

“You are more important than us.”

“I just told you I'm not!”

“You're the only one who can stop Niflheim and bring Insomnia back.”

“Yeah, right.” Noct dragged his hand down his face. “But I can't do it alone. I never did anything on my own. It was all you or Gladio or Prompto, or my dad, or Cor, or... Cid and Cindy are helping us out right now. I could basically flop down and do nothing, then have Gladio throw me at Niflheim with his Iron Giant arms. So long as I hit the crystal we'd be all good.”

“Wasn't that basically your plan from ages fifteen to seventeen?” Gladio asked.

Noct shot Gladio a glare. “The point is, putting me on a pedestal's stupid. You're my friends, not my... my servants or whatever.”

“Awww, buddy.” Prompto slung his arm around Noct's shoulders and leaned against him cheek-to-cheek. “We love you too. How about a group hug?”

Ignis huffed through his nose, carefully moved his toy car aside and daintily pressed himself to Noct's other side. Noct lifted his hand like Ignis was a stray cat he was trying not to startle and sort of hover-handed over him. It was shit like this that made Gladio wonder how the fuck a marriage to Lady Lunafreya was ever going to work.

“Hey!” Prompto said. “Get in on this, big guy.”

Gladio wrapped his arms around all three of them and drew them tighter to his chest. They complained, variations on hey and that he was messing up Prompto's hair, Ignis outright hissed like he actually was a stray, but they eventually settled into a comfortable arrangement. Noct and Prompto's heads on his shoulder, Iggy tucked somewhere between all three of them. And Gladio... They were all so damn small. What if they just stayed like this? Where he really could protect them. Safe and enclosed in his arms, where the Empire, and the daemons, and whatever they hadn't seen coming couldn't get to them.

“Big guy?” Prompto said tentatively, after a while. “You done?”

“Huh?”

“Gladio!” Noct started to struggle, pushing futilely against the areas of Gladio he could reach. “You reek! When's the last time you had a shower?”

Gladio released them. Prompto hopped up, Noct stood more slowly. Gladio tried to ignore the little pang of guilt when Noct moved stiffly and stretched. Had being held in the same position for so long twinged his back? Then they both caught sight of Ignis and their annoyed expressions softened. He was curled up in Gladio's lap, fast asleep.

“Aww,” Prompto said, summoning his camera from the armiger to take a half dozen shots. “Poor little guy must've been tuckered out.”

“You realise big Iggy's gonna murder you if he sees those?” Noct said. He picked up the toy car and laid it carefully next to Ignis on Gladio's lap. “He should sleep in a real bed.” Noct winced as he tried to move his back again. “Tuck him in. I'm gonna call Cor. That'll give us the extra help we need so we can get moving.”

###

Just why was Ignis so exhausted anyway? They hadn't woken up that long ago and who'd ever heard of a six-year-old with insomnia? Although, Ignis at this age had apparently thought he was entirely responsible for Noct, so maybe insomnia wasn't too far-fetched. Gladio tucked him in to Cid's bed with the little car beside him. He left his cell phone on the dresser, along with a note telling him to call Noct (Ass Face in his phone's contact list) when he woke up from his nap.

Maybe he shoulda just joined him because the moment he stepped foot outside, Prompto and Noct were on his ass again about needing to rest.

“I'm just gonna sit down,” he said, waving them off. Which he did. He sat in the diner, finishing off another bowl of fries and a milkshake. Poor Ignis could do with a bed to himself for a bit. Once he'd eaten, he leaned back and watched Prompto and Noct for a while through the window. They were sitting on the blanket laid out earlier for Ignis and didn't seem to be actually trying to talk to each other at all. Huh. Gladio had thought they'd made up. They hadn't seemed like they were fighting earlier.

Then he was jerking awake, slamming both knees on the underside of the table. Shit! He shoulda taken that nap after all.

It was seven in the evening, according to the diner's clock. Why the hell hadn't someone woke him up? To drag him somewhere more appropriate to sleep, at the very least. He looked out the window again and saw Cor and Noct and Prompto. Prompto was gesticulating widely, Cor had his arms crossed, lips pursed, Noct was shouting. Hang the fuck on. Were they arguing?

Gladio slid himself out of the booth and headed for them. “Something wrong, Marshall?”

“I'm taking the kid,” Cor said. “You three head on to Lestallum and stop wasting time.”

“Like hell you are.”

“I thought you of all people had more sense, Gladio. You can't do your duties with a child in tow.”

“And you can?”

“I can take a break,” Cor said. “There's no break from being the prince. He won't come to any harm with me.”

That wasn't the point! They'd been trying to hammer into Ignis that he was important because he was Ignis, not whatever insane bullshit he'd gotten into his head about how he had to dedicate his entire life to Noct. They couldn't just discard him now. “We can't do this without Ignis.”

“Ignis is a child. You're going to have to.”

“Where are you planning on taking him?” Noct said.

Nowhere, if Gladio had anything to do with it.

“Somewhere safe.”

“Hang on. Gladio, Iris is in Lestallum right?”

“Yeah, but--”

“It's safe there and since we're heading there anyway, you and Iggy can come with us. Gladio lost a lot of blood, he can't fight just now. We could use your help in case we run into anything on the roads. And then we'll... decide what to with Ignis when we get there, I guess.”

“Suits me. Let me know when we're heading out, I'm overdue a coffee.”

When Cor was out of earshot, Noct gestured Gladio and Prompto into a huddle. “We ain't leaving Iggy in Lestallum,” Gladio said.

“Obviously,” said Noct. “But we do need the Marshall's help.”

“You got a plan, Noct?” Prompto said. “I'm really hoping you've got a plan.”

“Yeah. Get Cor's help with some more hunts. We still need cash. Then when Gladio's back up to max health, I'll distract him. You two can get Ignis out of there and we'll meet up once I've lost the Marshall.”

Kidnapping Ignis from Cor the Immortal, huh? What could possibly go wrong?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for how insanely long this new chapter took. Thanks so much for the comments on the last chapter. I'm really sorry I won't have a chance to reply to them individually but I really appreciate people taking the time to comment.

Iris was alive. Jared and his grandson were alive. Gladio hugged them and tried not to get carried away this time, but he did lift Iris off her feet and give her a couple of spins. They introduced Ignis to Talcott. Talcott took to it instantly, launching into the latest fairytale Jared had told him (Ignis nit-picked the historical inaccuracies), then how much he'd like to meet a cactuar (Ignis solemnly told him it would mean his untimely death). He never had been good around kids his own age, always about twenty years too old for his body. Talcott quickly moved on because that was a lot to deal with for a seven-year-old, telling Noct all about some treasure behind a waterfall.

A royal arm.

Since Gladio had been practically raised by Jared and Cor would be with the rest of them for backup, Ignis would be safe at the Leville. So they trekked to a icy cavern that made Gladio's nipples do a great impression of a pair of diamond cutters.

“Shoulda got some furs for this,” Gladio said.

Noct shrugged. “We're here now.”

“I woudn't say no to some furs,” Prompto said, hugging his arms.

“In and out,” Cor said. “If you're efficient enough, you won't have time to feel the cold. “

Which was easier said than done, since they let the guy with no sense of direction lead the way. Noct once got lost walking home from that arcade he and Prompto went to every single week. Why wasn't Cor leading anyways? Surely he'd been here once before with King Regis. Cause this place wasn't only cold it was dark as well, the unfathomable distance in front swallowing up their torch beams.

He should be in front making sure nothing else leapt out at Noct. But then that'd leave their rear open. Why'd he never learned any magic? He could do with putting a literal shield either in front or behind him right now.

He guessed he'd have to trust Prompto on this one. He had good eyesight. Good hearing. That made him better-suited to watching Noct's front in this situation. Gladio followed behind with Cor.

“What are you filling Ignis' head with?” Cor asked, while Noct and Prompto got into a heated debate over whether spiders with lady parts or spiders with regular spider parts were worse.

“Me?!” Gladio said. “What the hell did you fill his head with? You ever think of giving him a pep talk now and then?”

“You shouldn't try to dramatically change his attitudes.”

“Respectfully disagree, Marshall. Iggy shoulda got to be a kid, just like Noct did.”

“He's going to grow up. Either because you reverse the curse or the way everyone else does. He needs to grow up to be the Ignis Scientia we all know, and the childhood he got made him that.”

###

The cavern was filled with Arachnes, which finally got Prompto to admit lady-spider hybrids were the worst. There was other bullshit like tiny gaps even Noct struggled to get through that Gladio almost got stuck in. Several ambushes. Then when they finally got the damned sword, Noct started getting headaches that nearly sent him to his knees. Potions didn't touch them. They came and went but sometimes Gladio and Prompto had to haul him up.

When they were finally, finally outside the cave Gladio's phone started ringing. He clocked a couple dozen missed calls before he got the phone to his ear.

“What's up?”

“Gladiolus,” Jared's voice said. “I need you to return as quickly as possible. There was an incident.”

###

An incident was underselling it. An incident was Ignis told Talcott Santa Claus didn't exist. Not ending up with a wounded Imperial officer tied up in the Leville's bathroom. Noct's headaches were so bad that he couldn't seem to process what the hell was happening, so Cor ponied up the money for a separate suite so he could nap in the dark for a while. Jared took Talcott into the new set of suites and Gladio sent Prompto to watch Noct in the room, Cor to guard their new prisoner.

Which left him to deal with Ignis.

“What the hell happened?” Gladio asked.

“The armiger,” Ignis said. The poor kid was obviously still shaken but they needed to know. “You said there were weapons in there and the officer was trying to hurt Jared, so I...” He pulled a dagger from the armiger, startling both himself and Gladio, then made it disappear again. It had still been bloody.

“You stabbed him?”

Ignis nodded. “Talcott was playing and the officer asked him where he was from. He didn't know to lie and then... The officer was grabbing Jared. He would have hurt him badly. I could tell he wanted to. So I stopped him.”

Fuck. So much for Lestallum being safe. Gladio could just about hear Cor's voice beyond the bathroom door. Just the tone of it, not the words, which wasn't all that different from how he usually talked. The captured Niff's response was louder and more aggressive. It went back and forth like that for a while and then it turned. Cor's voice stayed the same but the Niff's turned high and pleading.

Gladio scooped Ignis up and took him into corridor. Maybe he was too young to understand the implications of that?

Or maybe not. He buried his face in Gladio's shoulder, tiny hands clinging to Gladio's jacket and sobbed. Silently. And Gladio had no fucking clue what to say, so he just hugged him and let him cry it out until he was exhausted enough to fall asleep on his shoulder.

When Cor finally came out of the room, he was frowning.

“What the hell, Cor?” Gladio said in a hissed whisper so he didn't wake Ignis again.

“He's Brigadier General Caligo Ulldor and they're planning to invade Altissia and kill Leviathan. The Oracle is there already and if she gets in-between them...”

So Cor was just gonna ignore what he'd said, huh? Gladio weighed the probability of it doing any good to make Cor confront the fact that he'd just _tortured a gods-damned prisoner of war in the Lestallum's en-suite bathroom_ and found the odds not in his favour. “So what are we gonna do about it?”

“We've gotta get there first. Old man Cid's got a boat. I'll arrange that. You'd better find somewhere to stash the kids. We aren't dragging them into a warzone.”

“You dragged yourself into a warzone when you were a kid.”

“Gladio,” Cor said, in a passable impression of Gladio's dad's 'that's quite enough' voice. “This is urgent. Your feelings aren't.”

Yeah, well, they never were, were they? Nor Ignis'. Not even Iris'. But Cor was right, so Gladio kept that locked up behind his tightened jaw. “Yes, Marshall.”

###

They might be able to “stash the kids” but they couldn't do a fucking thing with Noct in this state. The peaks of his migraines had him barely able to stand. Ignis wouldn't leave his bedside once he caught sight of him like that. He kept a cool compress on Noct's forehead, chilling it every so often with ice magic. Gladio had forgotten how young he was when he'd learned that. How he was just as young when he first held a sword. It hadn't seemed like they were kids at the time, tiny, with a duty the size of the world. It had all seemed so normal. It--

“You okay, buddy?” Prompto asked.

“Yeah. Just needed some fresh air. Noct's getting pretty rank in there, huh?”

“Gladio, come on, man. Just--” Prompto dragged his hand over his face. “I'm freaking out here and I know you're freaking out too so just stop being a toughbutt for a second and--”

“A toughbutt?”

“Shut up! We've gotta take on a whole army and Iggy's not-- What are we gonna do? There's gotta be something we can do, right? Just tell me what needs to happen and I'll do it! I--”

Gladio gripped Prompto by both of his shoulders cause he looked like he was gonna start bouncing off the walls in a second. “Hey, hey, it's okay.”

“How's it okay?!”

Yeah, how was it okay? They were fucked. Completely fucked. They had no Ignis, no Noct, Cor being a hardass cause he apparently thought they were overreacting to being completely fucked. “It'll be okay.”

“But how?”

 _Stop asking me that!_ He had no explanations, only platitudes, and Prompto was damn right he was freaked out because what sane person wouldn't be?

But Prompto wasn't going to drop it and someone had to stay strong and stalwart. And that had to be him. That was his job, right?

“We got through Insomnia's fall and we're gonna get through this.” He steered Prompto into the other room. “You have a nap, play some stupid game, do whatever it takes to get your head on straight. I'm gonna sort this out.”

###

Ignis was the tactician but they were gonna have to stop missing all the things Ignis provided and start providing for themselves. Gladio stepped back into the room where Noct was sleeping. Ignis was tucked up beside him, both fast asleep. Gladio gave himself a moment – just a moment – to really feel the pang of what should have been. How he should be able to let his King, his _friend_ sleep off the pain and forget the world for a while. How they should have a world where Ignis could just be a kid.

Then he shook Noct's shoulder. He groaned, bringing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “What's wrong now?”

“Nothing. Nothing new anyway. We gotta put an end to these headaches. So come on.”

“Come on and what?”

“You know what. You ain't had migraines before. Iggy woulda told me. Hell, your dad woulda had half the Citadel's medical staff on rotation 'til they sorted it. Which means this is freaky magical stuff and that's a Lucis Caelum speciality.”

“It's no big deal.”

“The hell do you think we're all here for? Anything that takes you out of commission is a big deal.”

There was a moment when he thought Noct was going to deflect again. A genuine moment when he looked like he intended to roll back over and go back to sleep, and Gladio would have ended the Lucis Caelum line right there he sore to the Astrals. But he swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, despite looking like he wanted to collapse. “It's Titan.”

“Titan.” For real? Didn't they have enough to deal with without the Astrals getting involved too?

“He's calling. He wants something. I don't know what.” Noct got to his feet, wavered, and then cracked a potion over his head. His eyes glowed with just the faintest rim of red for a moment. “You're right. We can't do anything with me like this. So let's go see what Titan wants.”


End file.
